Tina Chancey is director of HESPERUS. She plays medieval fiddles, viola da gamba and renaissance, Old Time and Irish fiddle on roots music from Sephardic and Irish to medieval and jazz standards. Her particular specialty is the five-stringed pardessus de viole–she was awarded two NEA grants for debut concerts at Carnegie Recital Hall and Kennedy Center, and her most recent Trio Pardessus recording of Boismortier sonatas was released in July, 2014. Also a member of Ensemble Toss the Feathers (based in France), Sol y Sal and Trio Sefardi, she is a former member of the Folger Consort, the Ensemble for Early Music, New York Renaissance Band, Blackmore’s Night and QUOG. Recent artist residencies took her to Berlin, Germany and the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts; as well as the Oberlin College Conservatory, the Morgan County (WV) Arts Council, D.C’s World on a String, the Indy Convergence, the city of Long Beach, CA and the Smithsonian Resident Associates.

​

Tina attended Oberlin College and received an MA in Performance from Queens College, an MA in musicology from NYU, and a PhD in Musicology, Music Technology and Women’s Studies from the Union Institute. She has taught at Dickinson College, George Washington University, St. Mary’s College, William and Mary College, Wagner College and Queens College. A former chair of the Early Music America Education Committee, Tina has been a presenter at Orff-Schulwerk, ASTA, MENC, and Chamber Music America national conferences. For two decades she performed in the DC public schools through the Washington Performing Arts Society’s “Concerts in Schools” program. A participant in the Kennedy Center Education Department’s seminar, Artists as Educators: Creating Teachers’ Workshops, Tina recently co-led a teachers’ workshop at the Metropolitan Museum of Art entitled Fame and Folly in the Renaissance.

​

Tina teaches, performs, improvises, produces recordings, composes and arranges (for the National Gallery of Art Vocal Ensemble, the Washington Revels, and Rondo Publishing’s Celtic Gold series), writes popular and scholarly articles (for Early Music America magazine and the Journal of the Stiftung Kloster Michaelstein) and directs a Christmas

​

Collegium, SoundCatcher workshops on playing by ear and improvisation, and What’s That Note:Tune-Up workshops for amateur choruses. The Versatile Viol is her 3-CD series featuring the viol in Scots-Irish music, French baroque music, and American traditional music. Tina has been given an Special Education Achievement Award by Early Music America and four Wammies for best classical instrumentalist by the Washington Area Music Association.