Cellist MaryGrace Bender is a performer, teacher, and believer in the beauty of music
and the important impact it has on how we see the world. As a Suzuki teacher, she
leads a full studio of cellists in the Nashville area, as well as a studio in Huntsville.
MaryGrace founded the Nashville Chamber Music Society, which is a 501(c)(3)
organization and performs on a regular basis with NashvilleCMS in a variety of spaces
for a variety of audiences. This past summer, MaryGrace taught at Stringtime in DC, a
festival for young musicians, and previously served as a faculty member and performer
for Lincoln Center’s Restart Stages series for BridgeMusik in NYC. She regularly
records in Nashville for scoring companies such as Sony, Bungee, Hulu, and Netflix,
and enjoys coaching NashvilleCMS program chamber groups. She performed with the
McDuffie Center for Strings in Carnegie Hall, as Young Artist for The Rome Chamber
Music Festival in Italy, and recorded orchestrally under Philip Glass’s Orange
Mountain Music label which The Wall Street Journal reviewed as, “impeccably
polished.”
MaryGrace’s studies include a master's degree from The Cleveland Institute of Music
in Cello Performance and Suzuki Pedagogy, and an undergraduate degree from The
Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University. She spent summers at The
National Repertory Orchestra, Meadowmount School of Music, Brevard Music Festival,
Chautauqua Summer Institute, and the Aspen Music Festival and School as a New
Horizon's fellow. Past influential teachers include Dr. Melissa Kraut, Hans Jørgen
Jensen, Julie Albers, Dr. Felix Wang, and Anne Hall Williams. MaryGrace lives in
Huntsville with her husband Blake and their dog, Cooper. They all love the outdoors
and she attempts to keep up with Blake via hiking, biking, skiing, or running.