Meet the Musicians

Parish House Baroque

Elisa Wicks
is the founder and artistic director for Parish House Baroque in Colorado Springs, as well as the director of the Collegium Musicum at Colorado College. In demand as a soloist and a chamber musician, she performs on both baroque and modern violin, and has appeared with the Amherst Early Music Festival Orchestra (concertmaster), Chatham Baroque, the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Seicento, the Case Western Baroque Orchestra (concertmaster and soloist), the Pittsburgh Baroque Ensemble, and is looking forward to performing with the Portland Baroque Orchestra later this season. She can also be heard performing with the Chamber Orchestra of the Springs, the Hausmusik String Quartet, the Ute Pass Chamber Players, and the Colorado Springs Philharmonic. Recent solo recordings have included Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Johan Helmich Roman’s concerto in D minor, Joseph Bologne violin concerto in G major, as well as his Duo Concertante in G major, among others. Her teachers include, Carla Moore, Cynthia Roberts, Elizabeth Blumenstock, Julie Andrijeski, Linda Cerone, and Stephen Rose with additional instruction from Rachel Podger. Elisa holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in violin performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music with early music studies at Case Western Reserve University. Her violin is made by Johan Gottlob Ficker in 1793 and was given to her as a special gift.

Jennifer Carpenter
plays recorder and is a music historian. She performs and teaches regularly throughout the Southwest. Her pursuit of early music studies brought her to study at the University of North Texas where she received a Master of Music degree in musicology with an emphasis in early music performance; she has completed the course work for a PhD in the same field. In addition to her private teaching, she has been on the faculty of a number of early music workshops, including the Texas Toot, Next Level Workshops at Hidden Valley Institute, SFEMS Recorder Week, and Amherst Early Music Online. She is a frequent guest teacher with recorder societies and their workshops throughout the US and Canada. Her enthusiasm for working with amateur recorder players led her to serve on the Board of Directors of the American Recorder Society where she now works as their marketing director. Currently, she is the music director for the Denver Recorder Society. A resident of Colorado Springs, Jennifer enjoys spending time outdoors with her husband, son, and corgis.

Pam Chaddon
is the associate principal cellist for the Chamber Orchestra of the Springs and baroque cellist for Parish House Baroque, as well as the finance and human resource administrator for the Visual and Performing Arts Department at University of Colorado Colorado Springs and an on-air host for Classical KCME 88.7FM, where she curates “Encountering Mozart”; “A Journey through the Baroque”; “Music of Friends,” a chamber music hour; and “Women of Note,” a program highlighting women composers past and present. She has developed multiple cross-disciplinary, award-winning educational projects locally, including “Interrupted: Suppressed Composers of the Holocaust,” “Enough: Voices of Intimate Partner Violence,” “Destination: Space” and “A Sensory-friend Carnival of the Animals.” Her love of theater keeps her busy, in addition to serving as cellist for productions at the Fine Arts Center, Theatreworks, Theatre SilCo, and the Colorado Springs Conservatory. She spends her free time immersed in researching and advocating for under-performed, minority, and disenfranchised composers.

Eric Wicks
has served on the staff of First Lutheran Church since 2013, and is currently Minister of Worship and Music. He is also Organist at Colorado College, where he teaches organ and plays harpsichord with the Collegium Musicum. At a very young age, Eric knew he wanted to become an organist and began his studies with John McCreary at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Cathedral in Honolulu, Hawaii. Eric also studied with Kraig Scott at Walla Walla College (now University) in Washington State before receiving both bachelor’s and master’s degrees with Todd Wilson at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he was awarded the Henry Fusner Prize in organ performance. Eric has appeared with the Colorado Chamber Players and as an organ and harpsichord soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of the Springs – including performing in this year’s Organ Spectacular concert. In addition, Eric has studied harpsichord with Janina Ceaser, piano with Olga Radosavljevich, eurhythmics with David Brown, and early music performance practice with Ross Duffin.

Updated 2024