About Me
Brenden Bachaud (They/Them) is an autistic violinist, baroque violinist, and violin teacher currently living in Northern Colorado.
Brenden began playing the violin at age nine in the public school system's instrumental music program. Over successive years, Brenden attempted to become more involved in music but due to growing up in a dysfunctional family system with abusive parents, they were not allowed to take lessons or even practice at home. Instead, Brenden learned from observing other students, asking them questions, and then by listening to classical music after winning an iPod through a school competition at age 13. Taking an autodidactic approach through observation, reading, and listening, Brenden relied heavily on the public school music program for their early training.
In 2011, Brenden began performing professionally with the Richland Light Opera Company Orchestra. Since then, they have performed with the Mid-Columbia Symphony, the Washington-Idaho Symphony, the Yakima Symphony Orchestra (including being invited to perform on a tour of Northern China), the Cœur d’Alene Symphony, the Walla Walla Summer Musical Series, Collegium Musicum in Memphis TN, the Greeley Chamber Orchestra, the Orqueerstra (an LGBTQIA+ exclusive ensemble in Northern Colorado), The Beethoven Camerata, the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra as Principal Second Violin, the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra, the Longmont Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Spirituosa, as a soloist for fundraisers for the American Heart Association and to support Breast Cancer Research, as a featured artist at Col Solare winery (2013 - 2014) and in accompanying ensembles for Mannheim Steamroller (2019) and Black Violin (2015), as well as freelancing for many projects across the United States. Brenden has appeared in masterclasses with Sarah Whitney (2017), the Aulos Ensemble (2019), and Carla Moore (2025).
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Falling in love with baroque music through recordings at an early age, Brenden engaged in scholarship of historically informed performance practice at Eastern Washington University with Dr. Jane Ellsworth, and studied baroque violin performance with Timothy Shiu at the University of Memphis, performing in the Collegium Musicum and in a masterclass for the Aulos Ensemble (2019). Brenden is currently continuing their study of baroque violin performance with Dr. Jubal Fulks at the University of Northern Colorado. They have also also performed with the baroque orchestra Sinfonia Spirituosa in Sacramento and Davis California, and in a masterclass with Carla Moore (2025).
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Brenden has also spent considerable time performing chamber music, studying with Dr. Jody Graves at Eastern Washington University. They were a founding member of the Colores Trio, which received the Kendall Feeney Award for Work in Contemporary Classical Music in 2018.
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As a composer, Brenden composed cadenzas for multiple works as concertmaster of the Columbia Basin College Orchestra, where they also performed concertos by Antonio Vivaldi. In 2017, Brenden premiered their own composition, titled Chloroplast, based on research by Dr. Jonathan Middleton, at the National Conference of Undergraduate Research with their colleague and fellow violinist Grace Fishel, a piece which was composed by converting amino acid sequences into sound. Later that year, the two were awarded the String Area Award for Creative Endeavors by the faculty at Eastern Washington University in recognition of the project.
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In addition to performing, Brenden has been teaching violin students across the spectrums of age, economic status, and ability/disability since 2011. Their students have been concertmasters and principal chairs for school and youth orchestras, have won auditions with local and semi-professional orchestras, and have won scholarships as music majors at multiple universities. In 2013, They began volunteering with public school music programs, working with Sarah Berglund (named Washington State Middle School Teacher of the Year, 2021), Jason Rose, and Lora Roosendaal. They joined the Mid-Columbia Symphony's Educational Outreach Committee in 2015, helping to establish a youth orchestra, and later leading sectionals for the ensemble. Brenden continued their advocacy for music education in 2016, working with Eastern Washington University's public school outreach program. Brenden continues to volunteer in public schools and to advocate for music education for all students. In 2025, They joined members of Sinfonia Spirituosa to work with the Davis High School Baroque Orchestra in Davis CA. Through their position as Principal Second Violin for the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra, Brenden worked with El Sistema, a free after school string orchestra and music education program in Denver that serves children ages 3-18. Most recently, Brenden has taught chamber music at Frontier Academy in Greeley Colorado and works as a sectional clinician for the Loveland High School orchestras in Loveland Colorado. Although not a Suzuki teacher, Brenden studied Suzuki pedagogy with Kathleen Spring at the Walla Walla Suzuki Institute in 2015, and with Janet Armour at the University of Memphis between 2018 and 2019.
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After being diagnosed as autistic at age 28, Brenden began researching pedagogical approaches and their efficacies among non-standard neurotypes and has worked to develop a private violin studio to work specifically with neurodivergent students.
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Brenden studied with Grammy Award winning violinist Dr. Julia Salerno on scholarship at Eastern Washington University, graduating summa cum laude and receiving the Dean’s Award of Excellence in 2018, with Timothy Shiu on a Graduate Assistantship at the University of Memphis, studying both classical and baroque violin performance as well as pedagogy, and is currently studying classical and baroque violin performance with Grammy nominated violinist Dr. Jubal Fulks at the University of Northern Colorado as a Graduate Assistant, also receiving the Russel D. Fielder Memorial Scholarship, the Eulalia Health Scholarship in Music, and the Graduate Dean's Scholarship Program award to fund their schooling.
My Pedagogical Family Tree
One of the coolest parts of studying the violin (in my opinion) is that we are all connected through our teachers. When I was young, I would listen to music for hours and hours, having no idea what the words on the album covers meant. Were they names or titles? Composers or performers? When I first started studying with Julia Salerno at the age of 20, the first repertoire I began studying was one of Ysaÿe's sonatas, something I had listened to hundreds of times. I had spent so long imagining what it would feel like to play it that I was in a state of shock for months, not quite grasping that I was actually doing this thing that I had dreamed about for so long! When I went to study with my next teacher, Timothy Shiu, I realized that, through my teachers, I am also a descendant of Ysaÿe's teaching. Perhaps that is why so many of us tend to play such similar repertoire while we are developing our technique and musicianship. It is the repertoire of our ancestors, of those who came before us and found this thing that we have all fallen in love with, those who then chose to share it with others in the form of teaching. To share this thing that I love more than anything else in the world is the reason I teach.
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Below is a condensed version of my pedagogical family tree. To add all of the more than 200 names makes it extremely convoluted, with countless lines crisscrossing and color-coding becoming all but useless. Every name should be present and remembered, and I endeavor to publish a truly thorough examination of this personal-history in the future.
