Born in the Northwest Territories, Louella Alatiit is a Canadian violinist with a diverse performing career. Her musical inspiration extends from the expressiveness and improvisatory elements of baroque music, as well as the unique sonority and expression obtainable with period instruments. This has led her to focus on performing baroque, classical, and romantic music in a style specific to the era and on instruments from these periods, which she does with some of the world’s leading period instrument ensembles, as well as other up-and-coming groups. In this capacity, Ms. Alatiit works with many renowned conductors and directors touring throughout Europe, Asia, and North America performing in some of the world’s most famous concert halls (such as, Carnegie Hall). With respect to her qualifications, she is a graduate of three prestigious schools—holding a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from McGill University, a Diploma in Baroque Violin from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, as well as a Master’s and Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Stony Brook University.
Ms. Alatiit has performed with groups such as, The English Concert, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The King’s Consort, Opera Fuoco (France), Le Cercle de l’Harmonie (France), Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht (Netherlands), Concerto d’Amsterdam, New Collegium (Netherlands), B’rock (Belgium), Les Passions de l’Ame (Switzerland), Trondheim Barokk (Norway), and the chamber music group Giardino Musicale in Den Haag. She has also worked with Canadian and American early music ensembles such as, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Early Music Vancouver, Victoria Baroque Players, New York Collegium, and Concert Royal (New York). Additionally, she has worked under notable 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. Currently she works on occasion with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, in Toronto and is regularly invited to play chamber music with Early Music Minnesota in the USA.
She was selected as an apprentice by Sir John Eliot Gardiner for the Monteverdi Apprentices Programme 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.
Her experience and training are something she aspires to impart to the next generation of musicians, and as a passionate educator she has done this for more than 20 years. Equally at home teaching children, intermediate to upper level students, and adult learners, she has taught at the Virtuoso Suzuki Academy, a prestigious Suzuki-method-based music school in New York, as well as maintained her own private teaching studio over a couple of decades. She has also guest coached undergraduate and graduate students in the Stony Brook Baroque Ensemble at her alma mater.
After living in the Netherlands for 15 years, she and her family relocated back to Canada in 2021. Since then, in the Fall and Winter semesters of 2022, she taught a chamber music class at the University of Toronto, Scarborough. She has guest coached and given a masterclass to undergraduate performance students at Grinell College in Iowa. Recently, Ms. Alatiit was the strings and instrumental adjudicator for the Stirling Festival of Sacred Praise in 2023 and adjudicated the violin classes at the CCC Toronto International Music Festival 2023.
