Born in the Northwest Territories, Louella Alatiit is a Canadian violinist with a diverse performing career. Her musical inspiration is rooted in the expressiveness and improvisatory character of baroque music, as well as the unique sonorities achievable with period instruments. This passion has led her to specialize in historically informed performance of Baroque, Classical, and Romantic repertoire on original instruments—working with both some of the world’s leading period ensembles and exciting emerging groups.
In this capacity, Ms. Alatiit has toured extensively across Europe, Asia, and North America, performing in some of the world’s most renowned concert halls, including Carnegie Hall, and working under the direction of many celebrated conductors and directors.
She holds degrees from three prestigious institutions: a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from McGill University, a Diploma in Baroque Violin from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and both a Master’s and Doctor of Musical Arts from Stony Brook University.
Ms. Alatiit has performed with ensembles such as The English Concert (UK), Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (UK), The King’s Consort (UK), Opera Fuoco (France), Le Cercle de l’Harmonie (France), Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht (Netherlands), Concerto d’Amsterdam (NL), Luthers Bach Ensemble (NL), B’Rock (Belgium), Les Passions de l’Ame (Switzerland), Trondheim Barokk (Norway), and the chamber group Giardino Musicale in The Hague. She has also worked with North American early music groups including Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Early Music Vancouver, Victoria Baroque, New York Collegium, and Concert Royal (New York).
She has collaborated under renowned conductors and directors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Iván Fischer, Vladimir Jurowski, Ton Koopman, Harry Bicket, Laurence Cummings, René Jacobs, Rachel Podger, Enrico Onofri, and Bernard Labadie. She currently performs regularly with Arion Baroque Orchestre (Montréal), appears consistently with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra (Toronto) and is a regular guest musician with Early Music Minnesota in the United States. She is also active as a soloist, recently presenting a series of solo concerts at Toronto Public Libraries, with an upcoming solo recital with Early Music Minnesota, and as a chamber musician with the emerging Toronto-based duo with theorboist and guitarist, Jonathan Stuchbery.
She was selected as an apprentice for the Monteverdi Apprentices Programme under Sir John Eliot Gardiner in 2009–2010, and for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s apprenticeship scheme in 2007–2008. Ms. Alatiit was loaned a ‘Pieter Rombouts’ violin c. 1710 Amsterdam from 2016-2021 by the Dutch National Foundation for Musical Instruments (NMF –Nationaal Muziekinstrumenten Fonds) and previously, a ‘Hendrik Jacobs’ violin c. 1700 also from the NMF. Currently, she plays on an instrument formally owned and played by the well-known Dutch violinist, Jaap Schröder, with an apocryphal label ‘Hendrik Jacobs’, c. 1725.
A passionate educator for over 20 years, Ms. Alatiit is equally at home teaching children, intermediate and advanced students, and adult learners. She has taught at the Virtuoso Suzuki Academy, a distinguished Suzuki-based music school in New York, and has maintained a private teaching studio throughout her career. She has also guest coached undergraduate and graduate students in the Stony Brook Baroque Ensemble—her alma mater—and has led coachings and given a masterclass for students at Grinnell College in Iowa.
After living in the Netherlands for 15 years, she and her family returned to Canada in 2021. In the Fall and Winter semesters of 2022, she taught a chamber music course as a sessional lecturer at the University of Toronto, Scarborough. Most recently, Ms. Alatiit served as the strings and instrumental adjudicator for the 2023 Stirling Festival of Sacred Praise and adjudicated the violin classes at the 2023 CCC Toronto International Music Festival.
