Rose Armbrust-Griffin
Music Educator and Violist Rose Armbrust Griffin received her Bachelor of Music from The Juilliard School, her Artist Diploma from The Curtis Institute of Music, and her Masters of Music from Indiana University. During her time at The Curtis Institute of Music, she held the James and Betty Materese Annual Fellowship. Most notably, Rose was awarded a Performers Certificate at the conclusion of her Masters for “recognition of her outstanding musical performance.” Her teachers include Heidi Castleman, Hsin-Yung Huang, Roberto Diaz, Michael Tree and Atar Arad.
As an active chamber musician, Rose has collaborated with renowned artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Pamela Frank, Vadim Gluzman, Peter Wiley and the Amernet String Quartet. Her chamber music performances include concerts at The Kennedy Center, Avery Fischer Hall, Music from Angelfire, Zankel Hall, Ravinia’s Steans Institute and The Musica Bella Concert Series. She has been guest artist at The North Shore Music and the Kingston Chamber Music Festivals and has performed with The Chicago Ensemble, The Jupiter Chamber Players, The Pilgrim Chamber Players, The Chicago Chamber Musicians, The Rembrandt Chamber Players and the Chicago Symphony’s MusicNOW series.
Rose was the viola teacher for The Juilliard School’s summer program in Shanghai, China. Currently, she performs with the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra, substitutes with the Lyric Opera of Chicago and enjoys performing chamber music with the Omnibus Quartet.
Rose has performed as soloist with the Bogota Symphony Orchestra, Woodstock’s Mozart Festival Orchestra, The Curtis Chamber Orchestra and the Indiana University’s Chamber Orchestra. She was awarded first prize in the Chicago Viola Society and Rembrandt Chamber Players Competitions and was a prizewinner at The Fichoff Chamber Music Competition.
She was the conductor of the St. Francis High School Orchestra and served for a season as Midwest Young Artist’s conductor and coordinator of their Oakbrook location. Rose has worked under the batons of Christopher Eschenbach, Sir Simon Rattle, James DePriest, Otto-Werner Mueller and Leonard Slatkin.
Rose is currently the viola instructor at Wheaton College and teaches Introduction to Music History, Introduction to Music Theory and Viola Literature courses. Her private students have attended The Juilliard School, CIM, DePaul University and Wheaton College. They have also been prizewinners in Chicago-area competitions. Rose loves to teach!
Rose has recorded for Albany Records. She plays on a 1989 Marten Cornelissen that was borrowed during her time at Curtis and was subsequently purchased after she realized she couldn’t live without it.
Rose and her husband Darrin have three daughters. Lucy (8), Cecilia (5) and Gigi (4). Lucy is a fabulous violist, Cecilia loves gymnastics and Gigi loves attention!