Abby Elder, violist from the suburbs of Cleveland and Detroit, earned her MM and MMA in Viola Performance from Yale School of Music, studying with Ettore Causa.  She spent a gap year studying viola at Juilliard with Heidi Castleman and Misha Amory and continued private study with Ms. Castleman while earning her BA in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Yale University.  She was a participant of the Perlman Music Program (PMP) Summer Music School, PMP Chamber Music Workshop, Music Academy of the West, Kneisel Hall, and received a New Horizons Fellowship to attend Aspen Music Festival.  She has collaborated in chamber performances with such artists as Donald Weilerstein, Peter Salaff, Molly Carr, and Mary Peckham.  She has appeared at Carnegie Hall with the United Nations Chamber Music Society and at the Clinton Global Initiative with the Polyphony Chamber Orchestra. She also performed as a chamber orchestra member at Itzhak Perlman’s Eternal Echoes Tour at the Barclay Center and the Tilles Center, as Principal Violist during the Juilliard 415 2019 Scandinavia Tour, as Principal Violist with the Boston Chamber Symphony, and in a chamber performance with Fermata Chamber Soloists.  She has appeared with the Sarasota Orchestra, New Haven Symphony, Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra, and the Boston Landmarks Orchestra as a substitute violist and as Viola Soloist with the Birmingham Bloomfield Symphony Orchestra, Dearborn Symphony, and Marquette Symphony. She was a finalist for the 2024 Frances Walton Competition, 2019 Music Academy of the West Sonata Duo Competition, and 2019 Yale School of Music, Woolsey Concerto Competition. She currently studies viola with Nicholas Chords.  Abby particularly enjoys chamber music, orchestra, and teaching.​

 

Abby Elder is a rising 3L at Harvard Law School (HLS), especially interested in mediation, negotiation, conflict resolution, and arts and entertainment law.  She interned at the Directors Guild of America, Marvel Entertainment, and California Lawyers for the Arts Arts Arbitration and Mediation Services.  She took Law and the Arts at Yale School of Drama while studying at Yale School of Music. She speaks Spanish and Hebrew at an advanced level and Arabic (MSA and Levantine) at an intermediate level.  Outside of music and academics, she loves hiking, kayaking, cooking, reading, and taking her tiny dogs for long walks!