Gillian Rogell, Viola
Gillian Rogell is a long-time member of the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra. She founded the Heart of Chamber Music Institute in 1999, first developing chamber music workshops that were aimed to provide a supportive, non-judgmental environment where players could more fully understand the intimate language of chamber music. These workshops incorporated "complementary" practices (acting, yoga, tai chi, Alexander technique) to help players lose their "self" consciousness and more easily become the music.
Ms. Rogell has developed both practical and conceptual coaching techniques based on the musical language found in the repertoire itself. She herself was coached by master chamber musicians: the original Hungarian Quartet, Edgar Ortenberg of the Budapest Quartet, and her mentor, Eugene Lehner. Ms. Rogell studied viola with Karen Tuttle while earning her BA from the University of Pennsylvania, and she received her Master's degree with Honors at New England conservatory, where she studied with Scott Nickrenz. Active as a violist and chamber musician in the rich musical life of Boston, she has also taught and performed at festivals in Israel and the Czech Republic, as well as in the United States at Castle Hill Festival, Killington Music Festival and the Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts.
Ms. Rogell has been a member of the viola and chamber music faculties of New England Conservatory Preparatory School since 1977 and now also directs the chamber music department at NEC's School of Continuing Education. She is on the faculty of the Walnut Hill School in Natick and maintains a private chamber music studio in Brookline, Massachusetts.