Nicola Gruen

A Bay Area native, Nicola Gruen performed for several years as a violinist in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and freelanced with the Halle Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony and English National Ballet. She is recorded on numerous film soundtracks, including "Moulin Rouge," and she played regularly in the award winning musical "Martin Guerre." An alumna of The Crowden School, Nicola's mentors have been Anne Crowden, Colin Hampton, Virginia Baker and Emanuel Hurwitz.

She currently freelances with a number of Bay Area orchestras and string quartets and was the Teaching Artist for California Symphony's Sound Minds program.  Previously, she was a private violin teacher in Connecticut at the New Canaan Country Day School, Westover school (a private girls boarding high school) and the concert mentor of the Danbury Community Orchestra.

Nicola earned a postgraduate violin performance diploma and teaching certificate from the Royal Academy of Music, studying violin on scholarship with Erich Gruenberg, OBE, former concertmaster of the London Symphony Orchestra and chamber music with Siegmund Nissel of the Amadeus Quartet.  Sponsored by a Hertz Memorial fellowship from UC Berkeley, Nicola also studied privately for two years with Emanuel Hurwitz CBE, founder of the Aeolian Quartet and founding concertmaster of the English Chamber Orchestra.  Nicola earned her Bachelor’s degree in music at UC Berkeley with Virginia Baker, former assistant concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony. Nicola has two daughters, one who sings in the San Francisco Girls Chorus and the other plays violin in Berkeley Youth Orchestra.