Grace Clifford

Violinist Grace Clifford is the inaugural Emerging Artist in Association with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Highlights of her 2018–19 season include performances as a soloist with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra at the invitation of English conductor Mark Wigglesworth, and the Adelaide, Western Australian, and Canberra symphony orchestras; and recitals in Adelaide and Canberra. She has appeared as a soloist with the Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide symphony orchestras and the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra; and has toured Australia with the Selby and Friends chamber ensemble.

In July 2018 Ms. Clifford performed at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, where she was the youngest invited musician in the festival’s history. She has also attended Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, where she premiered Timo Andres’s Piano Trio. She performs this trio in a 2019 tour with Miriam Fried and colleagues from Ravinia.

Ms. Clifford won first prize in the 2014 ABC Symphony Australia Young Performers Awards competition, also winning awards for Best Recital, Best Chamber Music Performance, and People’s Choice. In 2013 she won the Kendall National Violin Competition, also receiving the Bach Prize, Sonata Prize, and Audience Prize; the Australian Concerto and Vocal Competition, receiving the John Hopkins Performance Fellowship and the Audience Choice Award; the MBS Young Performer’s Award; and the Fine Music 102.5 Young Virtuoso Award. She received fourth prize in the Junior Division of the 2012 Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition in Beijing.

Grace Clifford is from Sydney, Australia and entered the Curtis Institute in 2014, studying with Pamela Frank. All students at Curtis receive merit-based, full-tuition scholarships, and Ms. Clifford is the William A. Loeb Fellow. Ms. Clifford was chosen by audition to study with Ana Chumachenco at the Kronberg Academy violin master classes in Germany in 2013. She has also studied with Robin Wilson, Ida Kavafian, and the late Joseph Silverstein.