Anna Brathwaite-McGregor

Violin



Anna Brathwaite began her violin studies at the age of three under the tutelage of her father, Dr. Augustus Brathwaite. Her debut television performance took place in Barbados when she was five years old. Anna was a student at the Baltimore School for the Arts where she won the Concerto Competition and was the recipient of the Gordon Trust Award for the Outstanding Classical Instrumentalist. She was also the recipient of a Maryland Distinguished Scholar’s Award in the Arts, won through competition. Anna has participated in the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Killington, Apple Hill, Banff Centre and Norfolk Chamber Music festivals. She has worked with members of the Muir, Emerson, Juilliard, Takács and Tokyo String Quartets, as well as such artists as Pamela Frank and Donald Weilerstein.

Anna graduated with a Bachelor of Music, cum laude, from Boston University where she was a student of Bayla Keyes. She completed her Master of Music degree as a student of Wendy Sharp at the Yale School of Music. While at Yale, she became a founding member of the Vinca Quartet, which was awarded a graduate string quartet residency position at the University of Colorado at Boulder. There, the Quartet worked closely with the Takács String Quartet while pursuing the Doctor of Musical Arts degree. In addition to residencies in Aspen and Vail, Colorado, the Quartet took part in the International Musician’s Seminar in Prussia Cove, England and the Juilliard Quartet’s String Quartet Seminar. The Vinca Quartet was also awarded the Bronze Medal at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in 2005. Shortly thereafter, Anna moved to Brooklyn to become a founding teacher at Achievement First Crown Heights Middle School, where she started the music program and the Strings and Rhythm Orchestra. She remains the music director and enjoys exposing her students to music from around the world while teaching them classical instrumental technique. She remains an active performer of classical and other genres of music, even appearing with Jamie Foxx and Kanye West on BET’s 106 & Park. She has been a member of the SOB since 2009.