Nancy Schechter, baroque violin & viola, joined New Trinity Baroque in 2006. She has performed internationally as a soloist and chamber musician. She has performed at music festivals in the United States and Europe, including the Tanglewood Music Festival in Lenox, Massachusetts; the Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds in Charleston, South Carolina and in Spoleto, Italy; The Chautauqua Institute in Chautauqua, New York; the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria; and the Red Lodge Music Festival in Red Lodge, Montana. For five years she was first violinist of the Alea String Quartet. She has served as concertmaster of the Valley Symphony Orchestra in Edinburg, Texas, and the Danville Symphony Orchestra in Danville, Illinois and is currently principal second violin of the Macon Symphony.

While growing up in New York she studied at the Juilliard School of Music. She earned both bachelors and masters degrees in violin performance at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and a D.M.A. degree from the University of Illinois at Champaign Urbana. Dr. Schechter has been on the faculty at Georgia State University, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, the University of Texas Pan American, the Conservatory of Central Illinois, Luzerne Music Center, and the Illinois Summer Youth Music program. She teaches violin and viola at the Sugarloaf School of Music in Lawrenceville, Georgia.

In the March 2006 issue of The Strad, her recent CD Swing Song and other forgotten treasures by Ethel Barns received acclaim in a review by Margaret Campbell. "This CD is sheer enchantment, with some haunting melodies that persist in the memory... Nancy Schechter.as a soloist . reaches the heart of Barns's music in that she has just the right approach to the Romantic style, with playing that is graceful but never indulgent." This recording is an outgrowth of her scholarly activities, which have focused on works by women composers and early music. Her interest in Baroque violin was initially sparked as an undergraduate at the Eastman School of Music, where she worked with the renowned Baroque violinist Dana Maiben. She recently attended the Amherst Early Music Festival, where she performed in an orchestra under the direction of Andrew Lawrence-King. Dr. Schechter combined her interest in women composers and Baroque music in her doctoral research which included an edition, analysis and performance of the violin sonatas of Isabella Leonarda. While she specializes in these areas, Dr. Schechter is comfortable in many styles.

Photo credit: Richard Calmes

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