Claire Bryant

New York City-based cellist Claire Bryant enjoys an active and diverse career as a leading performer of chamber music, contemporary music, and the solo cello repertoire. Ms. Bryant is a founding member of the acclaimed chamber music collective, Decoda - an Affiliate Ensemble of Carnegie Hall. Ms. Bryant is a frequent guest artist with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Lukes, and Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Band. A native of South Carolina, Ms. Bryant is equally engaged as an educator and advocate for inclusive arts in our society. Her international body of work in these areas was recognized in 2010 with The Robert Sherman Award for outstanding innovation in community outreach and music education by the McGraw Hill Companies. 

She is the director of Decoda’s criminal justice initiative, Music for Transformation, which brings collaborative songwriting workshops into correctional facilities in South Carolina and New York. Decoda’s work in the justice system has been widely celebrated, most recently receiving an invitation to perform at the White House at an event dedicated to the arts and criminal justice reform. Ms. Bryant is a graduate of The Juilliard School and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where her primary teachers were Bonnie Hampton and Joel Krosnick. She was in the pilot class of Ensemble ACJW and served as an Assistant Faculty for Professor Bonnie Hampton at The Juilliard School from 2007 – 2012.