
Megan Crawford – Assistant Concertmaster (2024)
First Violin
Website
A Michigan native, Megan Reiter-Crawford gave her first public recital, at the age of 6, in Detroit. Her concerto debut, at age 12, was in her hometown in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn as part of a concert series in Henry Ford’s Fairlane Estate. She has since concertized throughout the United States, appearing with orchestras in Ann Arbor, Aspen, Basalt, Dearborn, Detroit, Ft. Collins, and New York. She has performed extensively in recitals with Ann Arbor pianist Michele Cooker. Since marrying Grand Rapids Symphony Concertmaster James Crawford, the family duo has appeared regularly throughout West Michigan.
In addition to her recital appearances, Megan has been an active chamber musician and performed recitals with a Manhattan-based trio, Quest, when coaching with Isidore Cohen at the Manhattan School of Music. Most notably, Megan appeared with Vienna Philharmonic Principal Clarinetist Peter Schmidl in the trio version of Stravinsky’s “The Soldier’s Tale” while touring Japan with the Pacific Music Festival.
Megan has been the recipient of numerous awards including a fellowship to the Aspen Music Festival, which she attended for five summers; the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Bradlin Award; an Upton Foundation Grant for the Meadowmount School of Music; the Francis B. Furlong Scholarship for the University of Michigan; and a Governor’s Award nominee in the Emerging Artist category. Megan won the concerto competitions at both the University of Michigan and the Manhattan School of Music, has been a prizewinner in the Florida ASTA Competition, the Ft. Collins Symphony Young Artist Competition, the Corpus Christi International Young Artist Competition, and has participated in the prestigious Walter W. Naumburg International Violin Competition in New York City. She has been a featured artist on former Detroit classical music station WQRS-FM, and many of her orchestral performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio.
Megan received a Bachelor of Music degree with honors from the University of Michigan, where she studied with Paul Kantor. She went on to graduate from the Manhattan School of Music with a Master of Music degree, where she worked with Michael Gilbert and Patinka Kopec.
In addition to her full time job with the Grand Rapids Symphony, Megan is a dedicated violin teacher, teaching privately for more than 10 years. Before moving to West Michigan, she worked with many talented youngsters in the Preparatory Divisions of the Manhattan School of Music as well as the Mannes College of Music as a substitute teacher. In the past, Megan served on the faculty of the School of Music at Western Michigan University, filling in for Professor Renata Knific while Knific was on sabbatical.