Profile

Margret Gries has pursued a career in music that has included both academic research and professional performance. Gries is known for her expertise as a harpsichordist and organist, and has also studied and performed extensively on Renaissance and Baroque violin and viola. She has been a founding member of many early music ensembles in the Pacific Northwest, including the Portland Baroque Orchestra under the directorships of Ton Koopman and Monica Huggett, the Seattle Pro Musica under the direction of Richard Sparks, and the ensembles La Capriole and Con Spirito. For the past decade Gries has been the conductor and music director of the Jefferson Baroque Orchestra in Ashland, Oregon, and in 2008 became music director of the Oregon Bach Collegium in Eugene. She had also served for many years as continuo harpsichordist and lecturer for the Vancouver Early Music Programme.

After completing her BA at Pacific Lutheran University, Gries continued pursuing interdisciplinary topics with graduate study in philosophy at Yale University and in eighteenth-century performance practice at Cornell University. Gries has served as instructor in harpsichord at the University of Washington and has taught many courses in music, philosophy and humanities at Central Washington University. Current research interests include performance practice, and keyboard history pedagogy.