BIOGRAPHY

Grace M. Alexander is a modern and baroque violinist, arts innovator, and forest conservationist currently based in Vancouver, BC Canada. Her musical interests are primarily rooted in collaborative work with musicians and artists, but she enjoys playing in ensembles of all kinds. Grace is a zealous chamber and orchestral musician, private instructor, and recitalist in Canada and the United States. Passionate about the full range of what is possible on the violin and working with others to create a vibrant soundscape in performances, Grace is a flexible performer for an array of different musical periods and styles. She is often commended for her rich tone and spectrum of colors she creates on her instrument. She actively performs in Duo Emersi with composer-pianist Will Rand, where they regularly commission new composers for recital programming and create with storytellers, ecologists, and other performing artists.

With collaboration as a lifelong artistic pursuit, Grace has been engaged for numerous performance opportunities and recording projects as a co-creator and/or featured artist. Recent projects and performances include Kiuryaq at the Vancouver International PuSh Performing Arts Festival (Jan 2026), ELEMENTS: Weaving the Earth through Music, Word, and Dance in NYC (April 2026), and FirebirthLA hosted by UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music and the Society for American Music (May 2026). Grace has also been a quartet and orchestra member of a “Weird Al” Yankovic Los Angeles concert, Rick Springfield’s “Orchestrating My Life” Los Angeles tour concert (including radio and TV appearances), a Carol Burnett honorarium, jazz violin performance with Danilo Pérez, and more. Playing in the pit orchestra for various opera, musical productions, and the Arts for the Arts (AFTA) program experiences have also broadened her musical experiences. 

Having a wide breadth of musical leading experience in concertmaster/principal settings of various orchestras, Grace has led groups such as University of British Columbia Symphony Orchestra, St. Olaf Orchestra, West Coast Symphony, and the Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra among others. Recently, Grace was a musician in the Vetta Chamber Music concert series and tour as a member of the mentorship orchestra. She was a former section player of Santa Monica Symphony under the direction of the late L.A. Philharmonic musician, Guido Lamell. As a baroque violinist, she has been a guest musician for Gallo Baroque Chamber Players in Vancouver, BC, and performs regularly in the Baroque Orchestra Mentorship Program at UBC. 

She has attended summer festivals and institutes around North America and Europe, including Bowdoin International Music Festival, Domaine Forget International Music Festival, Orford Musique, Kinhaven Young Artists Seminar, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Borromeo Music Festival, Brevard Music Center, Við Djúpið Music Festival, and IU Jacobs String Teacher’s Pedagogy Institute among others. 

Grace won first-prize at the 2025 Friends of Chamber Music (Vancouver) Young Musicians Competition with the Kermode String Quartet. She is also a prize winner and finalist of national chamber music competitions such as the Saint Paul String Quartet Competition and Ladies Musical Club of Seattle Frances Walton Competition with the Høyde String Quartet. She was the winner of the 2022-23 Tour Soloist competition with the St. Olaf Orchestra, performing the Holst Double Violin Concerto with Owen Cromwell in nine venues around Washington, Oregon, and Minnesota in fall 2022. Grace also was a finalist for the 2022-23 St. Olaf Orchestra Concerto Competition. In 2020-21, she was third-prize winner of the Thursday Musical Young Artists Competition as a soloist.

As an arts innovator and leader, she co-founded and was the co-artistic director, along with her partner Samuel J. Ivory, of Synergy Musicians' Collective at St. Olaf College to promote collaborative, interdisciplinary, and innovative artistry in the collegiate setting. Grace recently founded Knapweed Arts and Music Festival in Plains, MT, a festival blending music, art, and environmental forest conservation in Northwest Montana. She is on the founding team and is Director of Operations and Design at EarthStory, an organization focused on the intersection of storytelling, ecology, and the arts. Grace also holds the following positions: Director of Advancement for the International Cello Institute in Minnesota, USA; Grant and Communications Officer at Allegra Chamber Orchestra in Vancouver, BC Canada; Development Assistant at the Við Djúpið Music Festival in Ísafjörður, Iceland. She also works as a freelance grant-writer for organizations and individuals such as FilAm Music Foundation, Grand Rapids Youth Choruses, and others.

Grace is grateful to have graduated from the University of British Columbia (M.Mus - 2026) and St. Olaf College (B.M - 2023) with primary coursework in music, but immersed in educational aspects of various disciplines that continue to inspire her work today. She will begin her studies at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University (G.DP) for the 2026-27 academic year. Grace will also begin the Global Leaders Institute (MBA) as part of the 2027 Global Arts MBA cohort in Fall 2026. Her recent private teachers and mentors include Jasper Wood, Chloe Meyers, Ryan Davis (Radia), Jose Franch-Ballester, Jae-Won Bang, Mary Sokol-Brown, Dr. Jonathan Girard, Charles Gray, Natsuki Kumagai, Anna Clift, Francesca Anderegg, Scott Anderson, Dr. Chung Park, and Steven Amundson.

Growing up between Santa Monica, CA and Plains, MT, nature has always been a centerpiece for her creative inspiration. She aims to integrate the natural world into all artistic avenues of her life. Outside of music, Grace loves to be surrounded by her home landscapes of the North American West and work on her family conservation-based tree farms, write short stories, eat delicious food, swim in lakes and oceans, take road trips, and share time with her dear friends and family. 

Grace practices and performs on a 2023 Bronek Cison Violin (original owner), and an 1878 François Nicolas Voirin Bow (prev. owner, Guido Lamell).