Violist Ann Marie Brink has performed in solo and chamber music recitals at Carnegie Hall, the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, Aspen Music Festival, Library of Congress, Severance Hall, Rockport Music Festival, Newport Music Festival, Banff Centre for the Arts, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Chamber Music Chicago, and the Bravo Vail Valley Music Festival, and has been a featured soloist with the Dallas
Symphony. An avid chamber musician, Ms. Brink’s performances with the Amernet
String Quartet were praised by the New York Times as “an accomplished and intelligent
ensemble. Their fine performances were most notable for the quality of unjaded
discovery that came through so vividly.” She has coached and performed in residencies
for Chamber Music America with the Cavani String Quartet, has twice been a fellow at
the Aspen Center for Advanced Quartet Studies and was invited by Isaac Stern to
perform in his Chamber Music Workshop at Carnegie Hall. First-prize winner in both
the Nakamichi Foundation Concerto competition at the Aspen Music festival and the
Darius Milhaud Performance Prize Auditions, she has also won the Florence Allan
Award at the Carmel Chamber Music Competition.
First introduced to the viola at the age of ten in a public school strings class, Ann Marie
became one of the youngest members of the Pensacola Symphony, performing in the
viola section while a freshman in high school. She later enrolled at Interlochen Arts
Academy, where she was a featured soloist with the World Youth Symphony, received a
Fine Arts Award and graduated with high honors. Ann Marie received her Bachelor of
Music with academic honors from the Cleveland Institute of Music and was awarded the Jim Hall prize for achievement and leadership in music. She received her Master of
Music from the Juilliard School, where she was awarded the prestigious William
Schuman Prize, the single graduate prize given at commencement exercises. Her
principal teachers were Karen Tuttle, Heidi Castleman and David Holland, and her
chamber music mentors include the Emerson, Juilliard, Cleveland, Orion, and Cavani
String Quartets. Ms. Brink has served on the faculties of Baylor University, Southern
Methodist University, University of North Texas, Interlochen Arts Camp, Wintergreen
Academy, Hot Springs Music Festival, Music in the Mountains Conservatory, Dallas
Symphony Young Strings and The Institute for Strings.
In 2019, after performing 20 seasons as Associate Principal Viola of the Dallas
Symphony, Ms Brink joined the faculty of DePaul University School of Music in
Chicago, serving as Assistant Professor of Viola. When not playing the viola, Ann Marie can be found in the kitchen, at the pool, or lacing up a pair of running shoes. A frequent traveler to Europe, she has studied and performed traditional Irish music in County Kerry, Ireland, and has taken numerous classes at the Apicius Culinary Institute in Florence, Italy. A US Master swimmer since 2001, Ann Marie has twice completed the 10-mile Maui Channel Swim, the only inter-island relay race in the world. She has run ten marathons including the Boston, New York, and Marine Corps Marathons. Seven of these were spent chasing her husband, Greg. She hopes to beat him in the Chicago Marathon someday. Ms. Brink served for over seven years as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for abused and neglected children in the foster care system in Dallas, TX.