Artist spotlight: Claire Bryant – cellist, teacher, advocate
South Carolina is well-represented by successful artists who were born or raised here but who now live beyond the state’s borders. Cellist Claire Bryant, based in New York City, is one artist who maintains close ties with her birthplace as a musician and educator. Bryant performs Nov. 20 in a homecoming recital at the Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County (details available on the FAC website.)
Here’s an excerpt from Bryant’s bio. Find out more about her on her website.
New York City-based cellist Claire Bryant enjoys an active and diverse career as a leading performer of chamber music, contemporary music, and the solo cello repertoire in premiere venues such as Carnegie Hall, Southbank Centre, Suntory Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Barbican Centre. Bryant is a founding member of the acclaimed chamber music collective, Decoda – an Affiliate Ensemble of Carnegie Hall, and is the principal cellist of Trinity Wall Streets chamber orchestra, Novus N.Y. Bryant is a frequent guest artist with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Lukes, Carnegie Halls Zankel Band and Ensemble ACJW, of which she is an alumna.
Bryant has appeared as a soloist with orchestras from South Carolina to California and from Honduras to Finland performing concertos of Haydn, Elgar, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saens and Vivaldi, among others, and appears frequently at festivals in the U.S. and abroad.
Bryant is equally engaged as an educator and advocate for inclusive arts in society. Her international body of work in these areas was recognized in 2010 with The Robert Sherman Award for outstanding innovation in community outreach and music education by the McGraw Hill Companies. In 2009, she founded a community residency project through chamber music in her native South Carolina called ”Claire Bryant and Friends.” This endeavor brings world-class artists to communities for weeklong residencies which go beyond the concert hall – bringing engaging pedagogy and performances into the public schools, advocacy forums supporting arts education, and community concerts and creative projects in diverse and innovative venues including hospitals, homeless shelters, and correctional facilities.
She is a graduate of The Juilliard School and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She was in the pilot class of The Academy — A Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School and Weill Music Institute and served as an assistant faculty for Professor Bonnie Hampton at The Juilliard School from 2007 to 2012.
Photo of Claire Bryant by Caroline Bittencourt Fotografia