Nicole Cherry, D.M.A.

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Praised by Trinity Hall at the University of Cambridge for her wonderfully virtuosic playing, internationally recognized violinist Nicole Cherry has distinguished herself as an orchestral soloist, chamber musician, artistic leader, and pioneering scholar. A graduate of The Juilliard School and recipient of its prestigious Morse Teaching Artist Fellowship, Cherry has performed on celebrated stages including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, Merkin Hall, and New York's 92nd Street Y. Her international career spans Europe, Australia, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and Africa. Her artistic and scholarly achievements have earned recognition from leading institutions worldwide, including her election as a Visiting Fellow of Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge, in connection with her contributions to the recovery and interpretation of nineteenth-century violinist George Polgreen Bridgetower's musical legacy.

Cherry's featured orchestral performances include appearances with the Richmond Symphony, Boston Conservatory Orchestra, Charlotte Symphony, Brazos Valley Symphony, New England Symphonic Ensemble, Allen Symphony Orchestra, Symphony of the Hills, and Georgetown Symphony. These engagements encompass individual violin solo appearances and concerto performances with the Marian Anderson String Quartet, including commissioned repertoire for string quartet and orchestra. Her artistic achievements include performances of Jonathan McNair's Follow the Drinking Gourd and the world premiere of a concert piece by James Ballentine with Symphony of the Hills. International highlights include a featured soloist tour of Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and South Africa, with a performance before Queen Noor of Jordan.

Her distinguished orchestral career includes appointments as Acting Principal Second Violin of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, secured through competitive blind audition, and Principal Second Violin of the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra. She has also served as Principal Second Violin of the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra and participated in its historic Carnegie Hall debut featuring Grammy Award-winning musician Jon Batiste. As a young violinist, Cherry served as concertmaster for a Kennedy Center performance conducted by the legendary Mstislav Rostropovich. Her professional performance experience includes interpreting Stravinsky under the direction of celebrated conductor Pierre Boulez. In 2026, she was appointed concertmaster of the Summer International Music Academy in Legnica, Poland. Her individual distinctions include Charlotte's Heritage Awards Artist of the Year recognition and appointment as William Hume Fellow for the Performing Arts at Occidental College.

An accomplished chamber musician, Cherry has appeared at prestigious festivals including Ravinia, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Bermuda Festival, Pablo Casals Festival, and Texas Music Festival. Her collaborators have included members of the Juilliard, Cleveland, Pacifica, Muir, Penderecki, and Colorado String Quartets, as well as distinguished soloists Rachel Barton Pine, Scott St. John, and Paul Katz. The Washington Post described a performance by her Euphoric Quartet as “one of the most compelling events” of the Reston Prelude Festival, while Bermuda's Royal Gazette praised a Marian Anderson String Quartet performance for music played “skilfully and beautifully.” In 2025, Cherry's performance of Joseph Bologne's Sonata No. 1 for two violins with ROCO Concertmaster Scott St. John was broadcast nationally on American Public Media's Performance Today. Her contemporary music engagements include collaborations with the International Contemporary Ensemble, MacArthur Fellow Claire Chase, and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Susie Ibarra. Her artistic versatility also extends to jazz, gospel, and popular music, including performances with Stanley Cowell, Richard Smallwood, and the concert orchestra for Whitney Houston's Classic Whitney.

Since 2001, Cherry has been a member of the internationally acclaimed Marian Anderson String Quartet, an ensemble distinguished by its international performances, innovative programming, and artistic collaborations. The quartet's honors include Chamber Music America's prestigious Guarneri String Quartet Residency Award, recognition through the National Endowment for the Arts' American Masterpieces initiative, and distinguished artistic residencies at Rice University, Brown University, and the University of Washington. In 2026, the quartet returned to Brown University as Heimark Artists in Residence, continuing its longstanding commitment to performance, commissioning, and artistic innovation.

For more than two decades, Cherry has maintained a distinguished artistic presence in Texas through performance, institutional residencies, educational leadership, and community engagement. Following a graduate chamber music fellowship at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music, she held artist-in-residence appointments at Texas A&M University and Prairie View A&M University. She co-founded and directed the Marian Anderson String Quartet Chamber Music Institute, expanding enrollment from 19 to 100 students and extending its programming from Texas to the U.S. Virgin Islands. Her leadership earned mayoral proclamations in Bryan and College Station, while a ten-day residency in Crockett, Texas, reached more than 3,000 people. These initiatives reflect her longstanding commitment to connecting artistic excellence with public engagement and expanding access to classical music throughout Texas and beyond.

A defining contribution to Cherry's artistic career is FORGEwithGEORGE, the international performance, research, and commissioning initiative she founded in 2016 to restore the legacy of nineteenth-century Afro-European violin virtuoso George Polgreen Bridgetower to contemporary musical life. Through this pioneering endeavor, Cherry has commissioned and premiered nearly thirty compositions, establishing an expanding body of repertoire inspired by Bridgetower's musical and historical legacy. Her performances, commissions, and scholarly presentations have reached distinguished institutions including the University of Oxford, London's Royal Academy of Music, The Juilliard School, Oberlin Conservatory, and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where she delivered the keynote address Reimagining Musical Programming. Among her commissions is David Wallace's The Bridgetower, which she performed with ROCO at Houston's historic DeLUXE Theater in 2025. In Strings magazine, Wallace described Cherry as “a fierce performer and formidable collaborator.” Her continuing commissioning work includes Curtis Stewart's Futures for violin and electronics.

Cherry's original contributions to Bridgetower scholarship have earned significant international recognition. She performed at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge in connection with its Rise Up exhibition, and her Bridgetower research contributed to the museum's Future Legacies project. Trinity Hall elected her a Visiting Fellow. In collaboration with musicologist Mark Ferraguto, she co-edited the first critical edition of Bridgetower's two quintets for flute and strings, published by A-R Editions in 2025. She subsequently co-edited additional editions of Bridgetower's Jubilee Variations and his arrangement of Cherubini's Lodoïska overture, published by A-R Editions in 2026. These publications provide modern performers and scholars with access to significant surviving works associated with the violinist-composer. Her edition of the quintets received scholarly attention in Cambridge University Press's Nineteenth-Century Music Review. Her research has also appeared in the peer-reviewed journal Music & Practice, and she serves as Partner Investigator on an Australian Research Council Discovery Project examining music, solidarity, sovereignty, and citizenship. Together, these contributions establish an enduring connection between Cherry's performing artistry, original research, and the preservation and expansion of the classical repertoire.

Cherry holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Violin Performance from Texas Tech University, a Master of Music from The Juilliard School, and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Maryland, College Park. Her advanced training includes postgraduate study at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University and a graduate chamber music fellowship at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music. Her honors include Texas Tech University's President's Excellence Award.

At The University of Texas at San Antonio, Cherry serves as Associate Professor of Violin, Director of Public Performances for UTSA Arts, and String Area Coordinator. A recipient of the university's 2026 Faculty Mentoring Award, she brings her internationally distinguished performing career, scholarly expertise, and artistic vision to the advancement of musical education. Through research-informed performance, curatorial mentorship, and initiatives including VIOLINspiration, she cultivates artistic individuality, intellectual inquiry, and professional leadership. Her work continues to connect the university and the broader Texas musical community with distinguished artists and institutions worldwide, advancing new possibilities for classical music performance, scholarship, and public engagement.