Elisa Wicks, specializing in baroque and modern violin, is honored to direct the Collegium Musicum. Beyond the walls of CC, she serves as Artistic Director of Parish House Baroque, a professional early music ensemble she founded in 2013. She is also Principal Second Violin for the Chamber Orchestra of the Springs, where she has recorded and performed numerous concertos including all of the Four Seasons by Vivaldi, Roman’s Violin Concerto in G Minor, several Bach concerti, and most recently, the Concerto in G Minor by Padre Bicajo. Elisa was also featured on Rocky Mountain PBS in 2020, performing Corelli’s Christmas Concerto. Recent summers have taken Elisa to Connecticut to serve as Concertmaster for the Amherst Early Music Festival, and to Ohio for Oberlin College’s Baroque Performance Institute. Prior appointments have included positions as concertmaster and soloist for the Butler County Symphony in Pennsylvania, concertmaster of the Case Western University Baroque Orchestra in Cleveland, and principal second violin for the Academy Chamber Orchestra in Pittsburgh. Recently, Elisa has been honored to perform with Musikanten Montana, Hausmusik String Quartet, Seicento Baroque Ensemble, Ute Pass Chamber Players, and regularly with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic.
Elisa earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in violin performance – including Suzuki certification in Books 1 through 10 – from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where her principal teachers were Linda Cerone and Stephen Rose, as well as Michelle George and Terri Einfeldt for Suzuki pedagogy. Additional studies in baroque violin have been with Carla Moore, Julie Andrijeski, Marilyn McDonald, Rachel Podger, Elizabeth Blumenstock, and Cynthia Roberts. During her time in Cleveland, Elisa studied historically-informed performance at Case Western Reserve University with Ross Duffin and performed in early music concerts at the Cleveland Museum of Art. She maintains a private Suzuki violin studio for students of all ages, delights in coaching chamber music ensembles, and has a passion for helping modern players learn historically-informed performance.
