Gail Ann Schroeder
Gail Ann Schroeder became acquainted with early music and instruments through her music history courses at Indiana University. It was the viola da gamba, and especially Renaissance music, that captured her initial interest. Her fascination with this period eventually became manifest in a cross-departmental independent study program in Renaissance Studies. A desire to concentrate on her skills and performance on the viol then led her to the University of Michigan where she continued her music history program and studied viola da gamba with Enid Sutherland, graduating in 1980 with a Bachelor of Music in Music History.
Continuing her viola da gamba studies at the Royal Music Conservatory of Brussels under the tutelage of Wieland Kuijken, she obtained her First Prize in 1983 and the Higher Diploma, with distinction, in 1986. From 1988 to 2002 she was assistant to Wieland Kuijken at the Brussels Conservatory where she taught viola da gamba, didactics of viola da gamba and directed the viol consort.
Ms. Schroeder has had an extensive career as soloist and as chamber musician, concertizing and recording with various ensembles such as the Huelgas Ensemble, Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, Leipzig Barokorchester, Ricercar Consort, Currende Consort, Capilla Flamenca and Catacoustic Consort. She has performed in many of the European Festivals including Holland Festival Oude Muziek (Utrecht), Resonanzen (Vienna), Innsbrucker Festwochen, Les Académies Musicales de Saintes, Festival van Vlaanderen, Festival de Wallonie and Internationale Festtage Alter Musik Stuttgart. She has performed for Belgian, Dutch, French and German national radio networks, as well as NPR (USA); and has recorded for Sony Vivarte, Channel Classics, BMG/DHM, Naxos, Erato, Ricercar and Eufoda labels. As a founding member of Ensemble Rebel she concertized extensively in Europe and North America, recorded for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi/BMG and won first prize in 1991 at the Fifth International Competition for Early Music Ensembles (currently the Van Wassenaar Competition) in Utrecht, Netherlands.
Since returning to the USA in 2006, Ms. Schroeder has been in demand as a teacher and ensemble coach at workshops for the Viola da Gamba Society of America, the Amherst Early Music Festival, Music on the Mountain, and Mountain Collegium, where she is assistant director. Currently living in North Carolina, she teaches privately, free-lances on viola da gamba and is artistic director of Asheville Baroque Concerts.