A muscular, red-blooded performance
––Classical Voice North America
About
Since his concerto debuts at the age of 14 in the United States, Spain, and Portugal, American violinist Eric Gratz has been celebrated as a thrilling performer, combining an old world style with a modern musical intellect. Equally desired as soloist, concertmaster, chamber musician, conductor, artistic director, and educator, he maintains a uniquely varied schedule that has taken him to four continents, performing in the world’s great concert halls with leading musicians of our time.
In 2013, at the age of 22, Gratz became the youngest Concertmaster in North America, accepting the post with the San Antonio Symphony. During his nine seasons with the orchestra, he took part in numerous world premieres, play-conducted the orchestra from the Concertmaster chair, and frequently appeared as soloist in a far-reaching repertoire ranging from Bach to Kurt Weill. Additional past and present solo appearances include The Cleveland Orchestra, The Phoenix Symphony, Euclid Symphony, Kings Symphony, CityMusic Cleveland, Lexington Bach Festival Orchestra, National Repertory Orchestra, McCall MusicFest Orchestra, Mid-Texas Symphony, and the Waterbury Symphony, with conductors Giancarlo Guerrero, David Danzmayr, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, Akiko Fujimoto, Noam Aviel, Tito Muñoz, and Jeannette Sorrell. In demand as a Guest Concertmaster, he has appeared with the Phoenix Symphony, Tucson Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, and the Santa Fe Opera. He served as Artist-in-Residence for the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle during the 2024-25 season.
Since 2024, Gratz has served as Director of the American Chamber Music Society in Chicago. A devoted interpreter of chamber music and recital repertoire, he appears at major festivals and concert halls around the world, including Mainly Mozart Festival, Maui Classical Music Festival, Castleton Festival, Austin Chamber Music, Dame Myra Hess Recital Series, Santa Cruz Foundation for the Performing Arts, Severance Hall, Auditorio Manuel De Falla, and the Kennedy Center. A former Artistic Director of the Olmos Ensemble, he frequently performs as a core member of the San Antonio-based group. Among Gratz’s many collaborators, some have stood out as particularly memorable, including violinist Vadim Gluzman; cellist Julian Schwarz; pianists Anton Nel, Orion Weiss, Jeffrey Kahane, John Novacek, and Jon Kimura Parker; harpsichordists Jeannette Sorrell and Ian Pritchard; and members of the Vertavo, Pacifica, Mendelssohn, Formosa, and Fine Arts String Quartets.
As a recording artist, Gratz has appeared on several albums. His debut album of virtuoso works for violin and piano (Eric Gratz, with pianist Eliot Goldmund) charted on Billboard Classical as the top independent release in the United States for its first week. He has subsequently recorded two other albums with the Olmos Ensemble, Olmos Live and Made In France, performing works by Harbison, Prokofiev, and Ravel.
Gratz believes it is of the utmost importance to inspire the next generation of musicians and currently serves on the faculty at the New Music School and North Central College. For three years he served as an Apollo’s Fire Senior Teaching Artist-in-Residence at Southland College Prep, helping to build a string program in South Chicago. He has given masterclasses at various institutions in the U.S., as well as in Ecuador, Italy, and China. In the summer he serves as Valade Concertmaster Faculty at Interlochen Arts Camp. A proponent of utilizing new technology to help democratize education, he has recorded several hours of video courses for Tonebase Violin, focusing on the music of Kreisler, Beethoven, and Ysaÿe.
A prizewinner of national and international competitions, Eric Gratz holds degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, and his former teachers include Cho-Liang Lin, William Preucil, Linda Cerone, Claudia Shiuh, and Cynthia Stuart. For more information, please visit ericgratz.com.
Reviews
“In the warmth and poise that the violinist brought to the deliberative opening solo statement [of Bernstein’s Serenade After Plato’s Symposium], Mr. Gratz was like a great story teller immediately gaining the confidence of his listeners. He knew where he would be taking us, and we wanted to follow him. Throughout the performance, he combined superb technique – virtually perfect intonation, incisive rhythms, rich double-stops – with a sense of humanity.”
––Mike Greenberg, Incident Light
"Spellbinding”
––San Antonio Express-News
"A muscular, red-blooded performance"
––Classical Voice North America
"Eloquent"
––Dallas Morning News
Schedule
9.28.25
Frankly Music
Ullmann: String Quartet #3
Frank Almond, Violin
Anthony Devroye, Viola
Alexander Hersh, Cello
10.5.25
Waterbury Symphony
Frucht: Finding Religion
Julian Schwarz, Cello
Waterbury, CT
10.26.25
Olmos Ensemble
Kahn: Quintet
Jeff Garza, Horn
Ilya Shterenberg, Clarinet
Julian Schwarz, Cello
Christopher Guzman, Piano
San Antonio, TX
11.6.25
Louisiana Philharmonic
Guest Concertmaster
New Orleans, LA
11.15.25
North Central College
Piano Trios by Brahms, Haydn, and Bolcom
Yeon Ji Yun, Cello
Susan Chou, Piano
Naperville, IL
11.17.25
Purdue University
Masterclass and Concert
Piano Trios by Brahms, Haydn, and Bolcom
Yeon Ji Yun, Cello
Susan Chou, Piano
West Lafayette, IN
12.6.25
American Chamber Music Society
Recital
Works by Mozart, Messiaen, Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saens
Eliot Goldmund, Piano
Chicago, IL
12.12.25
Opus 71 Concerts
Matthew Cohen, Viola
Julian Schwarz, Cello
New York, NY
1.4.26
Olmos Ensemble on Tour
Strauss: Don Quixote
Portland, OR
1.11.26
Music From St. Marks
Olmos Ensemble
JS Bach: Concerto in E Major
Vivaldi: Concerto, RV 544A
San Antonio, TX
1.31.26
American Chamber Music Society
Martinu: Madrigals
Ravel: Duo
Dohnanyi: Serenade
Weinberg: Trio
Matthew Cohen, Viola
Julian Schwarz, Cello
Chicago, IL
2.22.26
Mid-Texas Symphony
Selections from:
Vivaldi: 4 Seasons
Piazzolla: 4 Seasons
Akiko Fujimoto, Conductor
New Braunfels, TX
3.13.26
American Chamber Music Society
Janacek: Violin Sonata
Dvorak: Trio in B-Flat Major
Smetana: Trio
Chicago, IL
3.29.26
Olmos Ensemble
Smetana: Piano Trio
Julian Schwarz, Cello
Marika Bournaki, Piano
San Antonio, TX
4.17.26
Faculty Recital
Music by Beethoven, Schubert, Ravel, Messiaen
North Central College
Susan Chou, Piano
Naperville, IL
5.3.26
Olmos Ensemble
Verdi: String Quartet
Mozart: Flute Quartet
San Antonio, TX
5.9.26
American Chamber Music Society
Piano Quartets
Aurélien Fort Pederzoli, Viola
Alexander Hersh, Cello
Marta Aznavoorian, Piano
Chicago, IL
5.23-30.26
Recital Tour
Susan Chou, Piano
Taiwan
Media
BARTÓK
ROMANIAN FOLK DANCES
Béla Bartók's legendary concert work for Violin & Piano, Romanian Folk Dances
Brooklyn, NY
October, 2024
BRAHMS
SONATENSATZ
Johannes Brahms's Scherzo from the F-A-E Sonata, a work written in collaboration with Schumann and Dietrich
Brooklyn, NY
October, 2024
JS BACH
SARABANDA
JS Bach's contemplative Sarabanda from the Partita no. 2 in D Minor for Solo Violin
San Antonio, TX
October, 2018
BEETHOVEN
ALLEGRO ASSAI
The sparkling first movement from Ludwig van Beethoven's Sonata no. 8 in G Major for Violin & Piano
San Antonio, TX
October, 2018
JS BACH
ALLEGRO
A fiery performance of the finale from JS Bach's Sonata in A Minor for Solo Violin
San Antonio, TX
August, 2016
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