Philipp Elssner, Violin

German-American violinist, violist, and music theorist PHILIPP ELSSNER is currently based in Northport, Maine. Philipp received his bachelor’s degree in 2021 from the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM), where he studied violin with Jaime Laredo and Jan Sloman. In 2024 he received his master’s degree in music theory from McGill University in Montreal, where he studied violin with Jinjoo Cho. Since June of 2024 Philipp has been a violinist of the DaPonte String Quartet, a celebrated Maine-based group that makes appearances across the United States and around the world. Other recent engagements include sell-out concerts in Maine, Michigan, and North Carolina as a member of the Lake Trio.

Philipp has participated in summer festivals including Encore Chamber Music, Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, and Bowdoin International Music Festival. He is also the founder and artistic director of Belfast Chamber Music (Maine). Philipp has performed chamber music with such distinguished artists as Christopher O’Riley, Marcus Thompson, Fred Edelen, and Scott Kluksdahl. He has played in master classes for renowned artists and pedagogues such as Enrico Pace, Sung-Won Yang, Paul Kantor, and Soovin Kim, as well as for members of the Emerson and Pacifica string quartets, among others. While in high school, he won the North Carolina American String Teacher’s Association competition.

As an academic, Philipp has presented research on classical and popular music at national and international conferences, including at the Society for Music Theory’s 2022 and 2023 annual meetings. His master’s thesis, “Groove in the Mix: Spatial Manipulation in Groove-Based Popular Music, 1970–Present,” focuses on the embodied effects of stereo mixing practices in funk, soul, disco, and Hip Hop. In addition, he has served as a research assistant to William Caplin, with whom he worked closely on an analysis of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas, and to Edward Klorman, whom he assisted for his book Bach: The Cello Suites (Cambridge University Press, 2025).

As an educator, Philipp has taught music theory and musicianship courses at McGill University and has also served as a Teaching Assistant for numerous music theory courses at both McGill and CIM. He is currently on the violin faculty at Bay Chamber in Camden, ME, and has taught violin and music theory privately to many students of varying levels. Philipp believes that music is an art form everyone should be able to take part in, and seeks to nurture the unique musical voices of his students.

Philipp also has many years of performance experience as a violist. Recently, this has included performances of Dvořák’s American String Quintet Op. 97 with the Trillium String Quartet in Vermont, Mozart’s Divertimento in E-flat K. 563 and String Duo K. 423 for Belfast Chamber Music, as well as Saint-Saëns’s Piano Quartet, Op. 41, Dohnányi’s Serenade for string trio, and Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht for string sextet in Montreal, Canada.