Elinor Frey – Accademia De’ Dissonanti - Sensibilité

The Chamber Musis Society of Mississauga presents:

Elinor Frey and the Accademia de' Dissonanti - Sensibilité

Elinor Frey, cello and direction; Joe Lanza, Dorian Bandy, Jessy Dubé, Catherine Cosbey, violin; TBD, viola; Eliana Zimmerman, cello; Mélisande McNabney, harpsichord

The royal courts of mid-eighteenth century Berlin were lively crossroads for some of the greatest musicians of the time. The cello concertos of C. P. E. Bach were composed in the early 1750s, likely to be performed at one of the private academies or music societies popular in Berlin at the time. These tempestuous and dramatic concertos, full of fragmented and blustery exchanges, bear witness to Bach’s vigorous imagination. A generation earlier, Antonio Vivaldi wrote highly-imaginative concertos for strings at the Le Pietà conservatory in Venice. These surprising works are full of in-jokes and amusements to entertain his talented young students. In Vivaldi and Bach’s music, emotions are fleeting and instantaneous and, above all, the beauty of melody is emphasized.

Born in Seattle and living in Montréal, Elinor Frey is a leading Canadian-American cellist, gambist, and researcher. Her albums on the Belgian label Passacaille and Canadian label Analekta – many of which are world premiere recordings – include Giuseppe Clemente Dall’Abaco Cello Sonatas, winner of a Diapason d’Or, and Early Italian Cello Concertos, winner of the 2023 JUNO Award for Classical Album of the Year (small ensemble). Her critical editions of Dall’Abaco’s cello music is published in collaboration with Walhall Editions.

Elinor is the artistic director of Accademia de’ Dissonanti, an organization for performance and research. She has performed throughout the Americas and in Europe in recital and with numerous chamber ensembles and orchestras including the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, London Symphonia (ON), Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Symphony Nova Scotia, Rosa Barocca, Il Gardellino, Tafelmusik, and Pacific Baroque Orchestra, among others.

Recipient of dozens of grants and prizes supporting performance and research, including the US-Italy Fulbright Fellowship, a research residency at the Orpheus Institute in Ghent, and a collaborative research project in 2025 with musicologist Nicholas Baragwanath working on using hexachordal solfeggio in practice, supported by CALQ and UK Impact Accelerator grants. Elinor holds degrees from McGill, Mannes, and Juilliard. She teaches Baroque cello and performance practice at McGill University and the Université de Montréal and was a Visiting Fellow in Music (2020–2023) at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University. Frey was awarded Québec’s Opus Prize for “Performer of the Year” in 2021.

Host or Publisher The Chamber Music Society of Mississauga