Founded in 1995, and under the artistic leadership of violinist Boel Gidholm and cellist Christopher Haritatos since 2011, Publick Musick is a Rochester-based period-instrument ensemble that enriches the cultural landscape of Western New York by producing and presenting vibrant, historically informed performances of music from the 17th and 18th centuries and beyond. In our informal and engaging concerts, we perform well-known masterpieces as well as sharing with our audiences the excitement of discovering and bringing to life unknown gems from the past. Our performers are nationally and internationally renowned Early Music professionals both from the local area and from further afield.

Highlights from the last few seasons include programs of rarely heard 17th-century German Christmas and Easter music, involving the audience in sing-along chorales; popular annual performances with the Italian Baroque Organ at the Memorial Art Gallery; a performance at the Eastman School of Music's Women in Music Festival of music of Isabella Leonarda, a 17th century Ursuline nun; a recital of the works of composers of African descent from the 18th through the 20th centuries; performances of chamber music of the Classical era using pianos modeled on those of the 18th century; rarely-heard solo cantatas and instrumental music from Baroque Naples and Rome; and concerts of Bach Cantatas with Eastman's Craighead-Saunders organ in Christ Church Rochester. In 2018, the ensemble was awarded a Challenge America grant from the NEA to support performances in geographically isolated communities in Western NY. In 2020 and 2021 we continued to serve our community with a series of outdoor pop-up concerts; our regular concert series resumed in December 2021.

In addition to these concert performances, the ensemble has also done educational presentations and performances for area colleges and universities such as SUNY-Brockport, RIT, and Genesee Community College-Dansville, as well as at Rochester's School of the Arts, Nazareth Elementary School, and the Eastman Community Music School.

Publick Musick is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

Artistic Directors

Boel Gidholm has performed throughout Europe and the US as a baroque violinist and violist, working with early music ensembles such as Ensemble Aperto (Germany), the New York Collegium, ARTEK, Concert Royal, Pegasus Early Music, NYS Baroque and Ars Lyrica Houston. During her years in Austin, TX, she worked as a member of La Follia Austin Baroque and performed on both violin and vielle with Texas Early Music Project under the direction of Daniel Johnson. Since 2004 she has performed with the Victoria Bach Festival, TX, on both the modern and baroque versions of her instrument, with repertoire ranging from Biber to Britten and beyond.

Chamber music performances have taken her to Italy, France, Latvia, the Canary Islands, Canada and Denmark. She appears on recordings with Fiori Musicali-Barockorchester Bremen, Steintor Barock (Bremen), L’Arco (Hannover), Apollo's Fire, and The Publick Musick. She studied violin at the University of Gothenburg in her home country of Sweden, and studied baroque violin and performance practice at the Akademie für Alte Musik in Bremen, Germany. She lives in Rochester, NY, with her husband, Christopher Haritatos.

“Gidholm especially plays with an earthy directness, enthusiastically in sync with the music's emphasis on mercurial drama…” (Austin Chronicle)"

... the musical joy they transmitted in Stallet [the concert venue at Gränsö Castle] was spontaneous throughout, from the calmest adagio to the most violent presto...not only technically flawless, but with the ability to make this old music understandable in all its components." Västerviks Tidningen, Sweden (duo program with Christopher Haritatos).

Cellist Christopher Haritatos has gained a reputation as a passionate and intelligent performer on both the baroque and modern forms of his instrument.

As a baroque cellist he has had an extensive and varied freelance career with ensembles such as the Handel and Haydn Society (Boston), Ars Lyrica (Houston), Tafelmusik (Toronto), Concert Royal (New York), La Follia (Austin), and Apollo’s Fire (Cleveland). He has performed chamber music with artists such as Marc Destrubé, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Elizabeth Wallfisch, and Sergiu Luca. Previously, while living in Europe, he worked with ensembles such as as Fiori Musicali-Barockorchester Bremen, The Harp Consort, Ensemble Aperto, and Confetti Musicali, often as continuo cellist, taking part in numerous recordings and tours. Currently he is based in Rochester, NY, where he is Co-Director of the period-instrument ensemble Publick Musick and performs with other organizations such as Pegasus Early Music and NYS Baroque.

Equally accomplished as a modern cellist, Chris is a core member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and has also been a member of the Austin Symphony and the Austin Lyric Opera Orchestra (including as Interim Principal and Acting Principal Cello). He is regularly invited to the Victoria (TX) Bach Festival as both a modern and baroque cellist, and has been principal cellist of both the VBF Orchestra and baroque ensemble.

Also sought after as a pedagogue, he currently teaches at the Eastman Community Music School, has been on the faculty of Texas State University-San Marcos and the Rochester Institute of Technology, and has given numerous workshops and master classes at colleges and universities including the University of North Texas, the University of Virginia, Luther College, and SUNY-Fredonia.

A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, he holds a B.A. from the University of Chicago, an M.M. from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a D.M.A. from the Eastman School of Music. His major teachers have included Alan Harris, Marc Johnson, Catharina Meints, Pieter Wispelwey, Steven Doane, and Jaap ter Linden, with whom he studied as a Fulbright Scholar at the Akademie für Alte Musik Bremen.

Board of Directors

George Abraham
Tracey Boccia
Mitzie Collins
Marjorie Perlman
Jeremy Sher
Helen Smith
Christopher J. Wilmot