Mary Ellen Woodside

First violinist of the Merel Quartet, M.E. Woodside is a passionate chamber musician, performing in the Wigmore Hall, London, Tonhalle, Zürich, and in festivals such as Salzburger Festspiele, Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Lucerne Festival, Ittingen Whitsun Concerts and Omaggio a Palladio in Vicenza.  Chamber music partners have included Sir Andras Schiff, Julian Pregardien, Ian Bostridge, Yura Lee, Patrick Demenga, Julian Bliss, and Dénes Várjon and she has performed as guest first violinist with the Signum, Gemaux and Amati quartets.

Ms Woodside has performed as a soloist including double concerti with Tabea Zimmermann, Hariolf Schlichtig and Adelina Oprean and she gave the premiers of violin concerti by Aaron Jay Kernis and Martin Derungs with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. With the Merel Quartet she recorded for the Genuin, Solo Musica and Prospero labels works of Schumann, Janacek, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schönberg and Dvorak. She has numerous radio recordings for Swiss Radio DRS2 and for German radio SWR2.

E. Woodside has performed as guest concertmaster and leader of seconds with the Camerata Zürich, Basel Chamber Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra. For many years she held the position of principal second of the Tonhalle Orchestra, Zürich and served prior to that as assistant concertmaster of the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra.

Ms. Woodside studied at the Eastman School of Music with Charles Castleman, graduated with highest honors and received the coveted Performer’s Certificate.  She won numerous prizes before coming to Europe to continue her studies at the Guildhall School in London with Yfrah Neaman. She won second prize in the Bryan Young Artists Competition and was a finalist in the Washington International and the Kulenkampff Competition in Cologne, Germany. The focal point of further studies were chamber music coachings with mentors including Sándor Végh, András Schiff, György Kurtág, Robert Levin, Alfred Brendel and Ferenc Rados.

In 2015 Ms Woodside founded the Zwischentöne Chamber Music Festival in Engelberg, Switzerland, where she is artistic director and the Merel Quartet is ensemble-in-residence.