Margaret Soper Gutierrez grew up in a large, musical family with her love of Bach’s music nurtured from a young age. His big choral works, from a coveted vinyl collection, filled the house on a daily basis. Advancing as a violinist, the teenage Margaret discovered Bach’s intricate and intimate solo violin works and had the happy fortune of filling in for her injured teacher on the violin obbligato solo in Cantata No. 140 with a local Bach group. She was hooked!
Margaret received her Bachelors degree from the Eastman School of Music and Masters degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music. The summer before graduate school, Margaret spent a magical month in the South of France, rehearsing and performing the Bach B minor Mass and several motets under the baton of Robert Shaw and his Festival Singers.
Margaret’s professional life began in the Washington D.C. area, where she played and toured with both the National Symphony and Baltimore Symphony orchestras. While there, she was a member of the Washington Bach Consort, a small, select group of instrumentalists and singers dedicated to the choral music of Bach.
Raising a family and following her husband’s orchestra management career eventually landed Margaret here in Denver, where she is a member of the Colorado Ballet and Opera Colorado orchestras, plays regularly with the Colorado Symphony and performs chamber music with the Highland Square Ensemble. After many years on the violin faculties at CU Boulder and the University of Northern Colorado, she now teaches private students in her home studio, and loves the moment when they are ready to dip their toes into the beauty and complexity of Bach’s music.
Margaret has had the distinct honor and pleasure to be a member of the Colorado Bach Ensemble for the past ten years. CBE is her ‘happy place’ as a musician, and where her lifelong love of Bach has come full circle.