She is a violinist born Ella Killian in Seattle whose brother is the violist Tim Killian who was a co-founder of the Kronos Quartet. She performs as an orchestral and chamber musician and first worked in New York when she became a member of the Kronos Quartet with her brother and her husband who is the cellist Walter Gray, remaining with the ensemble from 1977 to 1978.
She returned home to Seattle and became a member of the Northwest Chamber Orchestra before becoming a member of the Pacific Northwest Ballet and regularly performing with the Seattle Opera and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. She is also a co-founder of the Rainier String Quartet and is heard regularly in the Northwest on a recital series. Also performing with other orchestras she has been a musician with the Dallas Chamber Orchestra, Dallas Opera orchestra and Forth Worth Symphony.
As a soloist and concertmaster she has worked since 1982 at the New Hampshire Music Festival, later touring with other co-members in a series of chamber recitals in 2000. She has also participated in several other music festivals such as Cabrillo, Olympic and Waterloo. She has been a soloist and recording artist with the New Performance Group and from 1998 to 1999 performed, recorded and toured with the North Texas Wind Symphony with whom she performed the Benshoof Concerto. She has also recorded with Hilary Field and the The Seattle String Quartet.
Recordings she has performed on include Atlas Eclipticalis With Winter Music by John Cage, Dark Blue Circumstances by Paul Dresher, Ballad Stories by Hilary Field, Desire Walks On by Heart, Mountain Clear Water Remote by Bun-Ching Lam, Home Revisited by the New Performance Group, Soundscapes by the North Texas Wind Symphony and No Es Lo Mismo by Alejandro Sanz, Harbour of the Heart by Christina Shahi along with Chinary Ung: Seven Mirrors and several others.
In the field of musical education she has been on the faculties of Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle University and Washington University.
Hilary Field recordings
“Variations on “Sakura“” (Yuquijiro Yocoh)
YTC-10103 (CD: Hilary Field: Ballad Stories)
Guitar – Hilary Field
Seattle String Quartet
Violin – Tom Dziekonski
Violin – Ellie Marie Gray
Viola – Leslie Johnson
Cello – Page Smith Bilski
She performs here…
Sources:
- https://www.hilaryfield.com/strings.htm
- https://stringsmagazine.com/kronos-quartet-at-40-the-birth-of-a-titan/
- https://www.last.fm/music/Kronos+Quartet/+wiki
- https://www.pnb.org/aboutpnb/staff/
- https://www.nhmfmusicians.org/
- https://rateyourmusic.com/artist/ella-marie-gray/credits/
- https://www.classicalarchives.com/newca/#!/Performer/p6591
- https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ella-marie-gray-mn0001235428
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/697792-Ella-Marie-Gray