Erika Atchley

Erika Atchley started studying violin at the age of six. So by the time she entered the North Carolina School for the Arts and met Elaine Ritchey, she had already studied with some outstanding teachers. But, she says, “Elaine was phenomenal. She was such a special person and a really great teacher.”

Erika attended the first season of the Chamber Music Festival of Saugatuck with Elaine and fifteen fellow students. And she returned for five years. “It was such a nurturing environment for us to be in”, Atchley remembers. “Elaine was like a mom, she just adopted all of us and made us feel at home. All fifteen of us were staying at the parsonage and we would take the Interurban bus to her apartment, which was at Chuck Parrot’s house, for our master classes. She would often cook big spaghetti dinners for us. We just loved spending time with her. I remember once we all decided to show up at her apartment unannounced. One at a time, we rang the door bell and said “hi, I was just in the neighborhood and thought I’d drop in....”, then two minutes later another person did the same thing, until eventually all of us were there. She loved it!”

Richey’s teaching style made a big impression on Atchley. “She was very strict about all of her students treating one another well. I’ve been a part of other studio environments where the competitiveness can get pretty mean between musicians. Elaine just didn’t allow that. She expected us to be competitive performers but she also expected us to be nice people. It was an important lesson.”

Atchley also discovered that Richey trained teachers at the same time she trained musicians. “When she taught you something, it wasn’t enough that you learn it. She also wanted you to be able to teach it. That’s not the case with a lot of other teachers. As an example, if we were having a scale class, she would give each student a scale to play. But then at the end, she’d encourage us to give her one to play. Of course, we always tried to come up with the most difficult possible scale to perform, which she always executed it perfectly.”

The unique environment of master classes, music festival and the warm and loving oversight of Richey created many happy memories of her summers in Saugatuck for Atchley. “I remember once being at her apartment and practicing scales. She always wanted us to play our scales with vibrato to perfect that technique at the same time. This particular time she was in the bathroom drying her hair. So I eased off a bit, just playing the scale straight. Suddenly, over the hair dryer noise, I heard her shout “...don’t forget your vibrato!”.

After completing her graduate studies at Manhattan School of Music, Atchley lived in New York City for many years where she performed, recorded and taught. Today she resides in Raleigh, North Carolina where she performs with the North Carolina Symphony.