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Guest Artist

Grant Houston

Violinist Grant Houston connects with listeners through performances
known for his unbridled musical energy and unique communicative voice.
Sharing music both within and beyond traditional concert settings, Grant
has performed in venues from the storied Carnegie and Jordan halls to
airplane hangars, public parks, biology labs, and the Volkswagen Transparent Factory in Dresden.
Particularly devoted to chamber music, recent appearances have included the notable festivals of
Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, Yale University’s Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Perlman Music
Program, Yellow Barn Young Artists Program, The Moritzburg Festival Academy, and the Music Academy
of the West.
In the 2022-2023 season, Grant appears regularly in concerts as a soloist and chamber musician, with
engagements to include Mozart’s fifth concerto with the Plymouth Philharmonic, debuts with the
Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia and Wellesley Chamber Players, and concerts with Trio Gaia,
including a major collaboration with the Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota and The Sarasota Ballet, a
weeklong engagement at the Panama Jazz Festival, and studio sessions for its first release. In recent
years, the trio has garnered numerous accolades, including prizes at the 2022 WDAV Young Chamber
Musicians Competition, the 2022 Premio Trio di Trieste in Italy, the 2021 Chamber Music Yellow Springs
Competition, the 2020 International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition, and the 2019 Plowman
Competition. In the fall of 2022, Trio Gaia enters the second year of its appointment as Trio-in-Residence
in the New England Conservatory’s Professional Piano Trio Program.
In addition to his career with Trio Gaia, Grant appears frequently with the conductor-less ensembles
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, A Far Cry, and Palaver Strings, and performs as a sought-after freelance
chamber musician, with recent engagements including a performance on Boston’s First Monday at
Jordan Hall series and a studio recording of Florence Price’s G Major String Quartet which has aired on
WGBH.
A keen proponent of contemporary music, Grant has worked with numerous composers to premiere
works that span the breadth of the genre. Recent projects have included a recital focusing on solo
violin works of living composers Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and Salvatore Sciarrino, an appearance on the
Boston Symphony’s “What I Hear” chamber music series curated by composer Bernard Rands, and the
commissioning of two immersive, audience-interactive works with Trio Gaia.
Grant has performed with artists such as Jeremy Denk, Paul Biss, and Melvin Chen and taken studies
with Itzhak Perlman, Midori, Hilary Hahn, Rachel Barton Pine, Martin Beaver, Inon Barnatan, and Stefan
Jackiw, among others, in addition to members of the Brentano, Cleveland, Cavani, Juilliard, St. Lawrence,
Prazak, Mendelssohn, and Miami string quartets. Currently pursuing Master of Music degrees in both
Violin Performance and Chamber Music at the New England Conservatory, Grant has studied violin with
Donald Weilerstein and Ayano Ninomiya, and chamber music with Vivian Hornik Weilerstein and Merry
Peckham. He performs on a 1757 Michel’angelo Bergonzi violin on loan from a private foundation.
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