Nick Grant
Principal Associate Concertmaster
Nick has served in all three violin principal positions of the SDSO: principal second violin (nine years), assistant concertmaster (nine years), and concertmaster (six years). Occupying all three principal violin positions is an unprecedented achievement in the 97-year history of the Symphony, so the Symphony recently promoted him to a new position, principal associate concertmaster.
He has a Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and is the first-prize winner of the Julia Klumpkey Memorial String Competition in San Francisco, the Arizona National String Competition, and the Musical Merit Foundation in two separate years.
Nick has served in the concertmaster position intermittently since 1981, appointed that year by David Atherton to work with such conductors as Aaron Copland, Kenneth Schermerhorn, and Gunther Schuller. He 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, Paganini, and Ysaye unaccompanied violin cycles. He performed the complete Paganini Caprices for the Paganini Bicentennial and the San Diego premiere of that work, which is described by Yehudi Menuhin as "the new testament of the violin." 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. He has also conducted the SDSO in Vivaldi's Four Seasons and the A minor violin concerto by J.S. Bach. 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, which is based here in San Diego, and with the Friends of the UCSD Library. His hobbies include surfing, rock climbing, hiking, biking, unicycling, tennis, camping, boating, golf, underwater photography, long-distance swimming, and kayaking. His dream is to surf the Cortez Banks and climb Half Dome in Yosemite in the same week.
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.)
Watch the video of Nick performing the SDSO premiere of
Nicolo Paganini: "Nel Cor Piu Non Mi Sento"
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