Annie Fullard

Violinist Annie Fullard, celebrated for her “gleaming artistry, bravura and sensitivity,” stands as a pioneering force in chamber music education and advocacy. As Director and Sidney M. Friedberg Chair of Chamber Music at The Peabody Institute, Johns Hopkins University, and Distinguished Artist and Charles and Mary Jean Yates Chair in Chamber Music at The Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University, she continues to shape the next generation of chamber musicians while advancing the art form’s reach and impact. Annie is co-author, with Dorianne Cotter-Lockard, PhD, of the highly anticipated guidebook ‘The Art of Collaboration: Chamber Music Rehearsal Techniques and Team Building’ (Oxford University Press, February 2025). Beyond the concert hall, Fullard views the empathy and connectivity of chamber music as a metaphor for the kind of communication that we should strive for between cultures and nations.

As a founding member of the Cavani String Quartet, Fullard has earned international recognition through extensive touring and prestigious honors including The Naumburg Chamber Music Award, The Cleveland Quartet Award (Eastman), and top prizes at the Banff International, Fischoff, Coleman, and Carmel Chamber Music competitions. The Washington Post praised the quartet as “completely engrossing, powerful and elegant.” The ensemble’s artistic excellence and fervent ambassadorship for great music has garnered numerous accolades, including The Guarneri String Quartet Award for Artistic Excellence from Chamber Music America, Ohio Governors Award for The Arts, ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, and Musical America Magazine’s Young Artists of the Year. Annie and the Cavani Quartet are featured in the short documentary film TOGETHER! Beyond Beethoven with The Cavani Quartet. During her tenure at The Cleveland Institute of Music (1988-2018), she collaborated with her Cavani Quartet colleagues  to develop one of the nation’s most respected chamber music programs. Their groundbreaking initiatives included the Apprentice Quartet Program, Intensive Quartet Seminar, New Quartet Project, The Art of Engagement, M.A.P. (Music, Art & Poetry) Program, and Chamberfest Workshop for adult amateur musicians. The success of these programs is reflected in their former students’ achievements who now perform with acclaimed ensembles including the Aeolus, Afiara, Attaca, Catalyst, Dali, Harlem, Jupiter, Kronos and Telegraph String Quartets, as well as major orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

Fullard has served as a guest artist faculty at summer programs including Kneisel Hall, The Perlman Music Program, Center Stage Strings, Encore String Quartet Intensive, Interlochen Advanced Quartet Seminar, The Aspen Music Festival and Juilliard Summer Arts Festival (Shanghai). Fullard has collaborated with distinguished artists spanning diverse disciplines, including poet Mwatabu Okantah and musicians Josh Henderson, Alisa Weilerstein, Kim Kashkashian, Tessa Lark, Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson, Itzhak Perlman, and members of the Cleveland, Juilliard, and Takács Quartets. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, she pursued additional studies at Yale University and Indiana University under the guidance of renowned mentors Donald Weilerstein, Josef Gingold, Franco Gulli, Earl Carlyss, and Peter Salaff. Recognizing chamber music’s power to foster cognitive and emotional development through empathy, Fullard has curated residencies nationwide and founded Friday Night Chamber Music for pre-college students. Her innovative approach extends beyond traditional music education through The Art of Collaboration Seminar, which she and her Cavani colleagues have presented for numerous MBA and EMBA programs at universities, conservatories,  business schools, including the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.

She performs on an 1846 Vuillaume violin, copied from Paganini’s Guarneri del Gesu “Il Canone.”An admirer of both Ella Fitzgerald and Beethoven, Fullard maintains that music-making should always inspire  joy and connection. For more information, visit cavani.org.