Brandon Vance

Brandon Vance holds a B.M. and M.M. in Violin Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, having studied with Mr. Paul Kantor as well as the Cavani Quartet.  Brandon has 14 years of experience teaching private violin lessons, and in 2010 he received his Suzuki Certification from the Sato Center for Suzuki Studies at the Cleveland Institute.  He is currently Certified through book 4 (including Practicum), studying with Kimberly Meier-Sims. In addition, Brandon is an award winning fiddler and is currently working on a a fiddle curriculum designed to complement the Suzuki method.

Brandon is an Internationally acclaimed fiddler, and is the recipient of Scotland’s 2017 Royal National Mòd “Sutherland Cup” in Scottish Fiddle, as well as being the youngest to win the U.S. National Open Scottish Fiddling Championship in both 1999 and 2001. In 2021, Vance won 1st prize in the “Dan R. MacDonald Memorial Fiddle Competition,” sponsored by The Clan Donald Lands Trust, and held in Charleston, South Carolina. 

Vance has performed and taught internationally, serving as a guest lecturer at the University of Limerick’s Irish World Academy, appearing as guest artist for the 50th Anniversary of the Armagh Piper’s Club at the William Kennedy Piping Festival, and being selected as a featured soloist at the 2017 Scottish Royal National Mòd in Fort William.

Brandon is the second violinist of the Skyros Quartet, and fiddler for folk ensemble Keltoi, as well as being a founding member of Celtic ensemble Dréos, and world music group, Alchymeia.  He is a member of the Chamber Orchestra Northwest Sinfonietta and baroque ensemble Pacific Musicworks, as well as having a vibrant career as a recording artist and composer.  Vance had the honor of performing his own composition, Gael Storm, with the Cleveland Pops Orchestra at Severence Hall.