Maria Ritzenthaler

Maria Ritzenthaler is an American principal violinist of Cascade Quartet, a division of the Great Falls Symphony and is both Viola Professor and Chamber Music Coordinator at Harper College.

Early life and career

Ritzenthaler received her degrees in viola performance from Roosevelt University and University of Wisconsin–Madison. She had completed a doctoral degree in performance at the University of Minnesota at which she was under guidance from Sally Chisholm, Roger Chase, and Korey Konkol. She was a principal violinist at the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and assistant principal at Bend Symphony and the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra. Ritzenthaler is a participant of the Chicago Symphony's Citizen Musicianship Initiative and is also a teacher at the Merit School of Music.

In 2015, she moved from Minneapolis to Seeley Lake, Montana, previously to which she had performed at the Arts Northwest Conference in Tacoma, Washington. In 2017, upon returning from the event she survived a head-on collision with another car.