Clara Prinston
Instrument: Violin
Studies:
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, BA
Biography:
Haitian-American violist Clara Prinston has just completed her Master’s in Performance at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. Before moving to Canada, Clara was deeply involved in the arts community in her hometown of Knoxville, TN, where she graduated from the University of Tennessee with a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics and Applied Music in December of 2020. While in Tennessee, she regularly performed with professional organizations including the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, the Marble City Opera, and the Brevard Philharmonic under the baton of conductors such as Aram Demirjian, Sameer Patel, James Fellenbaum, Brian Holman, and more. Alongside her performing career, Clara additionally served as the Senior Radio Programmer and Announcer for the Afternoon Concert at 91.9FM WUOT, Knoxville’s NPR affiliate station. With the station’s three state range, she was able to share relevant stories not only through the music that she programmed, but also through the reputable artists that she interviewed including Tessa Lark, Nathalie Joachim, Nikki Giovanni, and more. Clara continues to hold ties to her hometown of Knoxville as a member of the Board of Directors for the Big Ears Festival and Organization. Furthermore, Clara has had the privilege of performing alongside established musicians such as Matt Haimovitz, and conductors such as Mei-Ann Chen, Giancarlo Guerrero, Daniel Hege, Victor Yampolsky, and more. She looks forward to performing in the 2024 Musical Chairs Chamber Music Festival in Montreal, and to joining the 2024 roster of fellows at the Music Academy of the West, in Santa Barbara, California. Her primary teachers have included André Roy, Jinjoo Cho, Geoffrey Herd, and Miroslav Hristov. Clara is honored to play on a 2016 Grubaugh and Seifert viola, on generous loan by the Virtu Foundation.
