Nick Grant
Principal Associate Concertmaster
100 years ago in Dec. 1910 a group of musicians played the first concert of the newly formed San Diego Symphony in the Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego.
In honor of the Symphony Centennial Nick Grant is releasing excerpts from his San Diego premiere of the twenty four caprices for unaccompanied violin by Nicolo Paganini at the Old Globe Theater in S.D. This iconic and transcendent work has been described as the “ New Testament of the violin “ by the late Sir Yehudi Menuhin, preeminent violinist and humanitarian. Click here for access to this live concert that remains the only performance of this legendary cycle in San Diego history. Click here to view the concert flier.
Nick Grant is the only violinist in the U.S. to win auditions for and serve in all three top violin positions in a single major orchestra, the San Diego Symphony. Grant is a former concertmaster of the SDSO, having served for six years. Click here to see the official announcement of Grant's appointment to the concertmaster position. He is also the longest serving string principal in the 100 year history of the SDSO and has won an unprecedented five auditions for different positions in the SDSO. Click here for Jeremy Kurtz’s fascinating description of the audition process. Grant is also the winner of the first concertmaster audition in the history of the SDSO. It was previously a political appointment without open competition. Grant has recently been promoted to a new principal position, Principal Associate Concertmaster.
Nick Grant is a San Diego native, his family having settled here in 1911. He started piano at four years and violin at eight. His solo debut with the San Diego Symphony was at age fifteen, playing the Wieniawski violin concerto No. 2. At age seventeen, he was one of the youngest musicians to audition successfully for the SDSO, entering the first violin section that year. His teachers were John Metzger and Dr. Robert Emile of San Diego and Jascha Brodsky of Philadelphia. His mentors include Michael Rabin, Josef Gingold, Michael Tree, Jaime Laredo, Erick Friedman and Mischa Schneider. He has a Bachelor's degree from the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and is the first prize winner of the Julia Klumpkey Memorial Competition in San Francisco, the Arizona National String Competition and the Musical Merit Foundation in two separate years. Nick has concertized on the east coast in a piano trio with Peter Wiley, cellist of the Guarneri Quartet. He has been a featured soloist for tours of Japan, Europe and the United States and is noted for his performances of the Bach, Ysaye and Paganini violin cycles. He also performed the SDSO premiere of the encore showpiece " Nel Cor Piu Non Mi Sento" and has been a frequent soloist with the SDSO over the years. Click here to watch the premiere of “Nel Cor Piu Non Mi Sento“.
He has also conducted the SDSO in Vivaldi's Four Seasons and the A minor Concerto by J.S. Bach. Interestingly, of all of the 17 principal players of the SDSO, Grant is the only native San Diegan. Nick is also a BMI affiliated composer-arranger and has been active in Hollywood for many years as a recording artist on violin. He enjoys a continuing association with Project Concern International, the Alzheimer's Association and the Monarch School.
Excerpts from reviews: "Nick Grant as concertmaster demonstrating what an expressive and technically adept violinist he is," (Jonathan Saville, SD Reader). "A remarkable display of bravura bravado . . . an altogether superior violinist," (David Gregson, San Diego Union.) "Mr. Grant is a superb musician . . . the concert was exemplary." (Linda Castile, San Diego Blade Tribune.)
www.NickGrantViolin.com
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