About.
​Phoebe Gelzer-Govatos, modern and historical violinist, holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in violin performance, plays with a number of regional orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout southeast Michigan, including the Ann Arbor, Lansing, and Kalamazoo Symphonies, and holds the principal second violin chair in the Adrian Symphony.
With a niche in historically-informed performance, Ms. Gelzer-Govatos is a founding member of period instrument groups Ensemble Affect and l’Invenzione, and has performed with a number of others, including the Indianapolis and Atlanta Baroque Orchestras, Louisville’s Bourbon Baroque, Kalamazoo-based Early Music Michigan, the Michigan Bach Collective, and Tonos del Sur, which specializes in baroque music of Latin America.
Recent season highlights include a program she helped craft with Ensemble Affect entitled Home Away from Home, featuring the works of immigrant composers of the 17th and 18th centuries, paired with readings and reflections from those composers, their contemporaries, and modern-day musicians, which was presented on the San Francisco Early Music Society concert series in March 2025.
In addition to her life as a performer, she is a frequent guest artist and clinician with early music ensembles at the University of Michigan and Grand Valley State University, and has been invited to lead workshops and masterclasses in historical style and technique at various other institutions, including the Bowling Green State and Youngstown State universities.
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Phoebe holds degrees from Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, and Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, respectively. Her principal teachers include Igor Markstein, Alvaro Gomez, and Routa Kroumovitch.
At home in Ann Arbor, Phoebe maintains a private violin and viola studio, coaches chamber music at the Rudolf Steiner High School, and likes to involve herself in creative endeavors of all kinds.
