Winner of the JUNO 2023 for Classical Album of the Year, Elinor Frey is a leading Canadian-American cellist, gambist, and researcher. Her albums on Passacaille Records and Analekta (Outhere Music) – many of which are world premiere recordings – include Giuseppe Clemente Dall’Abaco Cello Sonatas, winner of a Diapason d’Or, and Early Italian Cello Concertos). Her critical editions of Dall’Abaco’s cello music are published in collaboration with Walhall Editions.

Elinor is the artistic director of Accademia de’ Dissonanti, an ensemble devoted to musical interpretation and research. She has performed throughout the Americas and in Europe in recital and with numerous chamber ensembles and orchestras (Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Rosa Barocca, Constantinople, Il Gardellino, Tafelmusik, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, etc.). As a guest leader, conducting Galant and early-Classical ensemble repertoire from the cello, she has worked with London Symphonia (Ontario), Kingston Baroque Consort, Dorian Baroque, Siren Baroque, and others. Elinor has recently performed concertos with Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Mercury Chamber Orchestra (Houston), and the Telemann Suite for viola da gamba and orchestra with Symphony Nova Scotia.

Recipient of grants and prizes supporting performance and research, including the US-Italy Fulbright Fellowship, a research residency at the Orpheus Institute in Ghent, she will collaborate in 2025 on a research project with musicologist Nicholas Baragwanath working on using hexachordal solfeggio in practice.

Elinor holds degrees from McGill, Mannes, and Juilliard. She teaches Baroque cello and performance practice at McGill University and the Université de Montréal and was a Visiting Fellow in Music (2020–2023) at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University. Frey was awarded Québec’s Opus Prize for “Performer of the Year” in 2021.