Tina Chancey

Tina Chancey is a multi-instrumentalist specializing in early bowed strings from the rebec and vielle to the kamenj, renaissance fiddle, violas da gamba and pardessus de viole.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio to Communist (and music-loving) parents, Chancey went into music at an early age, and attended Oberlin College. After three years at Oberlin, which had little early music in 1967-70, she moved to New York City to continue her education. She received her Bachelor's in Music and MA in performance from Queens College, City University of New York, her MA in Musicology from New York University, and her PhD in Musicology from the online Union Institute.^{[citation needed]}

After 10 years in New York City with the Ensemble for Early Music and the New York Renaissance Band, she moved to Washington, DC and married recorder player Scott Reiss. She performed with the Folger Consort and started Hesperus, an early-traditional ensemble, with Scott in 1979. HESPERUS has performed throughout the Far East, Latin America, Europe and the States, specializing in British and Spanish Colonial Music and Medieval & Appalachian Fusion. The group has 15 CDs and 7 DVDs to its credit.

Chancey is a specialist on the pardessus de viole (a 5-string hybrid viol/violin played on the lap during the 18th c.), and received two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts to support solo performances on the pardessus de viole at the Kennedy Center and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.^[1] She has seven pardessus recordings; solos, a duo CD with Catharina Meints, and three with Trio Pardessus. Chancey currently performs a variety of early music styles with HESPERUS and Sephardic music with Trio Sefardi. Besides performing, she produces recordings for herself and others, teaches musical skills and improvisation, writes scholarly and popular articles, and directs HESPERUS, which is currently known for its early music soundtracks to classic silent films such as The Mark of Zorro, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Nosferatu, Häxan and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Chancey has also performed with Ensemble Lucidarium, Ex Umbris, the New York Consort of Viols and the Smithsonian Chamber Players, and is a former member of Ensemble Toss the Feathers. She's a current member of the Chancey-Boekhoorn duo, and plays for English Country Dances and contradances with the group, Are We There Yet?

Recent month-long duo-concert tours have taken her to France and Turkey, and in spring 2023 she was a featured artist at the DC Listening Lounge’s “SoundScene” festival at the Hirschhorn. Last season she was music director and improvising performer for the ExPats Theatre's production of Scorched, as well as for the InSeries' production of Las Misticas. She joined a new improvising ensemble, Passio, and participated in a 10-day residency with them in Marseille. Tina was also a featured artist in the PBS Special about Dante, wrote incidental music for the SpiffMAUL Halloween performance of the radio play Three Skeleton Key, and guest-conducted the Peabody Renaissance Ensemble's performance of I Love Lucette.

In addition, she has written articles for publications such as Early Music America Magazine, as a book reviewer.^[2]

Fun fact: for three fascinating years at the turn of the 21st century, Chancey toured the world with the Renaissance-Rock group Blackmore's Night (featuring Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple and Rainbow with his partner, Candice Night). Her stage name with them was "Tudor Rose."^[3]

REVIEWS

• “Tina Chancey returned home in quiet splendor Friday night.” Cleveland Plain Dealer
• “She played quick movements deftly, and there was much to admire in her stylish ornamentation and in her careful shaping of the adagios and sarabandes.” New York Times
• “She is practically a legend in the early music world, with a long list of credits that includes performer, record producer, teacher, composer, and impresario.” Fanfare Magazine

• Food of Love - Renaissance instrumental music from the British Isles.
• My Thing is My Own-Bawdy songs from D'Urfee's Pills to Purge Melancholy
• Dancing Day - Early and traditional Christmas music from around the world.
• Baroque Recorder Concerti - Concertos by Telemann, Vivaldi, Graupner, Naudot, and Babel featuring Scott Reiss as recorder soloist.
• Spain in the New World - renaissance and baroque music from Old and New Spain
• Celtic Roots - with Bonnie Rideout and William Taylor
• Luminous Spirit -Chants of Hildegard von Bingen with Rosa Lamoreaux
• I Love Lucette - 16th c. songs from the French secular theater, featuring Jane Hershey, Howard Bass and Rosa Lamoreaux
• Unicorn - Early/Traditional Crossover with Bruce Molsky and Bruce Hutton
• Neo-Medieval - Scott Reiss, Grant Herreid, Tina Chancey
• The Duo Guersan--Tina Chancey and Catharina Meints on two five-string pardessus de viole.
• Early American Roots- British Colonial
• Patchwork- Reprint of For No Good Reason at All
• Colonial America-More British Colonial
• The Banshee's Wail--Scott Reiss, medieval and Irish fusion with Glen Velez, Zan McLeod, Tina Chancey
• Fêtes Galantes - Music for various numbers of pardessus with Joanna Blendulf, Annalisa Pappano, Tina Chancey, Catharina Meints, John Mark Rozendaal and Webb Wiggins

For silent film scores please visit : Hesperusplayszorro.com

• Vivat Rex!: Sacred Choral Music of Jean Mouton. Suspicious Cheese Lords, 2008

• Tina Chancey's website
• Extended concert announcement from Cornell paper
• Hesperus at the Kennedy Center, includes video of performances.