Natalie Brennecke

Natalie Brennecke started violin at the age of five, and has played viola since age nine. She has studied with Jeffrey Irvine at the Cleveland Institute of Music since the fall of 2020, where she has served as Principal in the CIM Orchestra. She appeared on “From The Top” in 2020 as a Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist. 

Natalie has participated in masterclasses with Kim Kashkashian, Antoine Tamestit, the Jupiter Quartet, the Miro Quartet, as well as members of the Orion and Emerson Quartets. In addition, she has worked closely with numerous Cleveland Orchestra members in masterclass and coaching settings. An avid chamber musician, Natalie currently participates in CIM’s Advanced String Quartet Program with her fellow colleagues, the Estella Quartet. Together, her quartet was a prizewinner in the 2023 Plowman Chamber Music Competition. 

Natalie was a member of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra from the fall of 2016 to the spring of 2020, where she served as Principal of the Viola section. She also participated in the youth orchestra’s Chamber Advanced Performance Seminar, where she was able to study with several Cleveland Orchestra members.

Her awards include: first prize in the Ohio Viola Society’s Collegiate, Senior, and Junior Division Competitions (2023, 2016, 2011); recipient of the 2022 Howard E. Leisinger Viola Prize from the Tuesday Musical Association; co-winner of the 2018-2019 Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition; Winner of the 2019 Wendel Irish Viola Award; second prize in the 2016 American Viola Society Junior Division Competition; and winner of the 2016 Northern Ohio Youth Orchestra concerto competition. 

Natalie attended the Aspen Music Festival as a Fellow in 2022, where she studied with Stephen Wyrczynski and Jeffrey Irvine. Previously, she studied at the Bowdoin Music Festival in the summer of 2021 and 2019, where she studied with Jeffrey Irvine and Kirsten Docter, and the Perlman Music Program for the 2017 and 2018 summers, where she studied with Kirsten Docter and Carol Rodland. Previously, she attended the Credo Music Festival for the 2016 summer, where she studied with Peter Slowik.