Grace Anderson and Jennifer Curtis
In Concert on Sunday, August 10 @ 2PM
Program: J.S. Bach Goldberg Variations
Composer/performer Jennifer Curtis has been described as a “multi genre maverick” by the San Diego union tribune. Her second solo concert in Carnegie Hall was described by the New York Times as “one of the gutsiest and most individual recital programs,” and she was celebrated as “an artist of keen intelligence and taste, well worth watching out for.”
As a violinist Jennifer has won the milka-astral grand prize for violin, Juilliard concerto competitions and competed in Austria at the international Brahms competition.
She has appeared as a soloist with the Simon Bolivar Orchestra in Venezuela, performed her own mini concerto with the Knights Chamber Orchestra, been presented as a soloist at Carnegie’s Weil Hall, Philadelphia‘a Kimmel center and Academy of music, given world premieres at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center; collaborated with composer John Adams at the Library of Congress; appeared at Giverny international festival de musique de chamber, Spoleto Festival, El Festival de las Artes Esénias in Peru, and many other festivals worldwide.
An improviser, composer, and multi-instrumentalist, Jennifer was a member of the acclaimed new music group; International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) for 14 years.
She appears on many recordings such as Invisible Ritual with Tyshawn Sorey, for which pitchfork magazine wrote that “Curtis’s range as a soloist is a revelation.” Other recordings such as Routes of Evanescence with Ariana Kim, include her compositions.
Currently, Jennifer is finishing up an album of rarely heard repertoire by violinist/composer George Enescu. She has given American premieres of his solo violin works and performed many times in Romania in his honor.
As a composer, Jennifer has been in residence at Cornell, composed in India for classical dance and been presented at Spoleto Festival Italy and Verbier, where she joined the Curtis Orchestra during their residency. She has been part of multiple residencies at the Baryshnikov arts center in New York City as composer/performer and improviser.
An educator with a focus on music as humanitarian aid, Jennifer has also collaborated with musical shamen of the Andes, improvised for live radio from the interior of the Amazon jungle, and taught and collaborated with Kurdish refugees in Turkey. She has given her masterclass on the Art of Interpretation through improvisation and applied music theory at Oberlin Conservatory, San Francisco Conservatory, Cornell and more.
Jennifer teaches violin at Duke University, performs regularly with the North Carolina Symphony and plays on a 1777 Vincenzo Panormo violin. Her formidable teachers were Robert Mann, Itzhak Perlman, and Don Weilerstein.
Praised for her “rapier definition and boundless energy” (New York Concert Review), cellist Grace Lin Anderson has performed across North America and Europe as a soloist and chamber musician. Following her solo debut at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, she has appeared at Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Brooklyn’s Bargemusic, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as well as at festivals including Caramoor, Scotia, and Aspen. Internationally, she has performed at festivals in Canada, France, Germany, and the Netherlands.
Recent highlights include a concert tour of Germany in 2024, where Anderson performed Bach’s Solo Cello Suites and her arrangement of the Goldberg Variations for cello duo with Alan Black at the historical Köthen Castle and the iconic St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. Her season continued with performances with Queens Chamber Players and with Mallarmé Music, with concerts at Duke University, UNC Wilmington, Queens University of Charlotte and the Carolina Performing Arts at UNC. She continues the season with recitals in North Carolina with pianist Dmitri Shteinberg and a concerto performance with the Arequipa National Symphony in Peru.
As an artistic director and an educator, Grace founded and directed the Triad Chamber Music Society concert series and the Young Performers Chamber Music Workshop, for which she was twice nominated for the Swalin Best Educator Award by the North Carolina Symphony. As a teacher, she has given masterclasses at East Carolina University, Appalachian State University and MYCO Music, and she is currently an adjunct instructor of cello at Queens University of Charlotte.
Anderson received her B.A. from Harvard University, her M.M. from The Juilliard School, and her D.M.A. from UNC Greensboro.