Abby Elder, violist from the suburbs of Cleveland and Detroit, earned her MM and MMA in Viola Performance from Yale School of Music, studying with Ettore Causa.  She spent a gap year studying viola at Juilliard with Heidi Castleman and Misha Amory and continued private study with Ms. Castleman while earning her BA in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Yale University. 

She was a participant of the Perlman Music Program (PMP) Summer Music School, PMP Chamber Music Workshop, Music Academy of the West, Kneisel Hall, and received a New Horizons Fellowship to attend Aspen Music Festival.  She has collaborated in chamber performances with such artists as Donald Weilerstein, Peter Salaff, Stella Chen, and Mary Peckham.  She has appeared at Carnegie Hall with the United Nations Chamber Music Society and at the Clinton Global Initiative with the Polyphony Chamber Orchestra. She also performed as a chamber orchestra member at Itzhak Perlman’s Eternal Echoes Tour at the Barclay Center and the Tilles Center and as Principal Violist during the Juilliard 415 2019 Scandinavia Tour.  She has performed with the Sarasota Orchestra and New Haven Symphony and as viola soloist with the Birmingham Bloomfield Symphony Orchestra, Dearborn Symphony, and Marquette Symphony. 

She currently studies viola with Nicholas Chords and is in her second year at Harvard Law School (HLS).  Abby is an active chamber and orchestral violist and loves teaching viola as well.  At HLS, she is a member of the Recording Artist Project, providing Boston area musicians pro-bono legal services.