Originally from Annapolis, Maryland, violist and violinist Anna Griffis performs as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player throughout the United States and abroad. She made her concerto debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at the age of 16, and was the second prize winner in the 2008 Van Rooy Solo Competition.
Equally at home on modern and period instruments and with early and contemporary music, Anna is a member of New Bedford Symphony (principal), Albany Symphony, Hartford Symphony, and Grand Harmonie (principal), and performs with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Emmanuel Music, Marsh Chapel Collegium, Boston Baroque, New Trinity Baroque, Les Bostonades, L'Académie, and Arcadia Players. She has premiered works by Elliot Carter, Marco Stroppa, and Robert Carl, and performs with and is Executive Director of the Ludovico Ensemble, a group focused on music of the European avant-garde. A firm believer that chamber music is the best kind of music, Anna recently co-founded Trio Speranza, winner of the Presentation Prize at the 2014 Early Music America Baroque Competition, and was violinist/violist in the Anatolian Trio, with whom she toured Turkey bringing commissioned works by American composers to Turkish audiences across the country. She also likes concertos and has had the opportunity to perform as a soloist with the Tufts Symphony Orchestra, New England Repertory Orchestra, and the Hartt Contemporary Ensemble.
As a baroque musician she attended the Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin, Vancouver Early Music, Tafelmusik Summer Institute, and Amherst Early Music, where she led Conradi's Ariadne as concertmaster under the direction of Alexander Weimann. As a modern violist she attended the National Orchestral Institute and was a fellow at the Garth Newel Music Center and the Tanglewood Music Center. She has worked under the baton of Charles Dutoit, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Alan Gilbert, Stéphane Denève, Andrew Parrott, and John Williams. This past season saw concert tours of both Austria and Taiwan.
Anna studied violin performance at Lawrence University and The Hartt School of Music and received her Masters and Diploma in viola performance from Boston University as a student of Michelle LaCourse. In addition to her performing career, she is on faculty at the Dana Hall School of Music, maintains a private studio, and serves as the Coordinator of P.R. and Box Office for the Tufts University Music Department. When she's not playing, teaching, or administrating she likes to hang in her neighborhood of Lower Allston with her bassoon-playing basketball-loving husband and their cat, Pig.
read more about Ludovico Ensemble | read more about Trio Speranza
