Instructors
Grace Anderson
Grace Anderson has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout United States and Europe, appearing at Alice Tully Hall of Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Aspen Music Festival, Caramoor Festival, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Miami’s Lincoln Theater. Her chamber music performance of the Schubert String Quintet was featured on BBC to commemorate 9/11. Abroad, she has performed in music festivals in Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. Highlights of her chamber music collaborations include concerts with Cho-Liang Lin, Paul Neubauer, Judith Ingolfsson, Zuill Bailey and Fred Sherry and the late Bernard Greenhouse.
Since moving to North Carolina in 2006, Grace has established the Triad Chamber Music concert series (2006-2010). As its Artistic Director, Grace producing concerts at the Reynolda House Museum of American Art, UNC School of the Arts and UNC-Greensboro. In addition, Grace founded and directed the Young Performers Chamber Music Workshop (2008-2020), training teenage musicians in the art of playing chamber music, and earning her two time nomination for the Swalin Outstanding Educator Award by the North Carolina Symphony. Grace has also taught at UNC Charlotte, UNC School of the Arts Summer Chamber Music Intensive, Mallarmé’s chamber music program in Chapel Hill, and is an adjunct instructor at Queens University.
Locally, Grace has performed at the Eastern Music Festival, UNC Chapel Hill, UNC School of the Arts, and at Wake Forest University in collaboration with Grammy award dancer Savion Glover. In addition to teaching, she enjoys directing and arranging music for the cello choir. She authored Artistry and Cello Technique in which she details her extensive studies with Bernard Greenhouse and approaches to playing Beethoven, available on Amazon. Live recordings can be found on SoundCloud.
B.A. Harvard University, M.M. The Juilliard School, D.M.A., UNC Greensboro.
Alan Black
Throughout his career Alan Black has been actively involved and invested in the musical community in Charlotte, North Carolina as a cellist, teacher, coach, and musical entrepreneur. He is passionately committed to developing projects that create opportunities to support local professional musicians, student musicians, and attract new listeners to great musical experiences.
In the past 35 years Alan has served as the Principal Cellist with the charlotte Symphony. His performance experience covers the complete spectrum of music - from classical music, including chamber music, solo recitals, and concertos with the Charlotte Symphony - to touring and recording with the indie/folk/rock group Barnaby Bright. Highlights include performances on stage as a chamber musician and soloist with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Lynn Harrell, Bobby McFerrin, Van Cliburn Gold Medal pianist Jon Nakamatsu, and fiddler Mark O’Connor. European appearances have included chamber music concerts in Greece, Luxembourg, and piano trio recitals and concerts in Italy, Belgium, and France with violinist Liviu Prunaru, Concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and recording artist and pianist Dana Protopopescu.
During his tenure with the Charlotte Symphony Alan also founded and was Artistic Director of Chamber Music at St. Peter’s (1996-2008), Artistic Director of the Davidson College Concert Series (2012-2020), and most recently produced the CSO’s Al Fresco outdoor concerts in his backyard pavilion (2020-2021). He has received several awards in his career, including the prestigious $5,000 Mecklenburg County Arts & Science Council Fellowship in 1997 and a Emerging Artists grant in 1990. In 2001 he was honored by the Charlotte Observer for his contribution to the arts community as Founder of Chamber Music at St. Peter’s, and in 2001 he also received the Spirit Award, an award given by the Charlotte Mint Museum and Royal & SunAlliance to recognize those whose involvement and commitment to the arts contributed significantly to the quality of life in Charlotte.
Mr. Black performs on a 1995 Moes & Moes cello, originally built for, and owned by Yo-Yo Ma. This cello was used by Mr. Ma in the HBO documentary The Music of Strangers.