Grace Dashnaw is a cellist, composer, and multimedia artist based in Los Angeles. Grace’s practice navigates the intangible of lived experience. Emotional depth; longing, nostalgia, frustration, anger, and tranquility are paramount in their work. Dashnaw works within the mediums of graphic notation, instrument building, circuitry, programming, sculpture, fiber arts, and poetry, both within solo creations and collaborations. Dashnaw is currently pursuing an MFA in Composition and Experimental Sound Practices with an Integrated Media Specialization at California Institute of the Arts.
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Grace Dashnaw is an accomplished cellist, composer, and multimedia artist. They graduated summa cum laude from Ithaca College in 2021 with two Bachelors of Music, one in Cello Performance and one in Music Composition. During Grace's undergraduate degree, they studied cello with Elizabeth Simkin as well as Gregory Hesselink, and composition with Dr. Evis Sammoutis and Dr. Jorge Grossmann. They are currently pursuing a Composition and Experimental Sound Practices MFA and Integrated Media Specialization at California Institute of the Arts. At CalArts, Grace currently studies composition with Michael Pisaro and cello with Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick. They previously studied composition with Clay Chaplin and Tim Feeney during their previous semesters at CalArts.
Grace has studied cello at numerous festivals, including the Tanglewood Young Artists' Orchestra (2017), Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival (2018), Bowdoin International Music Festival (2020), Meadowmount School of Music (2021), and Interharmony International Music Festival (2022). At these festivals, they studied with Dr. Hyun Min Lee (BUTI), Steven Pologe (GMCMF), Jeffrey Ziegler (BIMF), Julia Lichten (Meadowmount), and Greg Hesselink (IIMF). Grace has additionally performed in masterclasses for Johannes Moser, Owen Young, Yumi Kendall, Kevin Lawrence, Misha Quint, and Guy Braunstein. In Summer 2024, they were invited to the Saarburg International Music Festival as a Guest Artist. Their responsibilities included performing repertoire at various venues in the area, leading and guiding chamber group rehearsals, and assisting faculty as needed. They have been invited back for the 2025 festival.
In addition to their strong Western classical performance background, they have experience performing and recording jazz, bluegrass, pop, theatre, noise, and improvisatory music as well. Collaborators within these genres include Jonah Bobo (Newgrass Suite), the Hangar Theatre, Opera Ithaca, Myles Cameron (Caged Bird, Yellow, Softboi), Teddy Hyde (Sock Footed), Not From Wisconsin, Delaques, Chris Corsano, Keir Neuringer, Flose, Daisy Jopling, and MK Velsorf. They are currently part of a noise project, Serration, in collaboration with Geneviéve Cecile and Faith Rawson, a post-punk band, Same Day Teeth, with Ivan Cunningham, Drew Gebhardt, and Dylan Levine, and an experimental improvisation trio, GEMZ, with MA Harms and Elif Dincer. Grace performed in the Naked Noise festival in Ithaca, NY in 2023 with over 15 other improvisatory artists in the area. Their current solo noise project, "Wraith", consists of amplified cello, pedals, synthesizer, voice, and found objects. They investigate the different sound worlds the cello can create and exist within.
In addition to an extensive performance history, Grace has established themselves as a composer as well. In 2019, they received the Jack Downey Award for their piece "Release", for cello with two-track loop pedal, two acoustic cellos, and three treble voices. Grace was commissioned by Ithaca College to compose the opening fanfare for the Class of 2022 Commencement Ceremonies. They've shown their compositions to many visiting artists, both at their institutions and summer programs. They have participated in visiting masterclasses and lessons with Steven Sacco, Nico Muhly, Chinary Ung, Alvin Singleton, Frederick Kaufman, and Gabriela Lena Frank. Their works have been read by the Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra, the Momenta Quartet, Ensemble C Barré, Lynn Harrell, and Johannes Moser. Most recently, their piece "Many Things, Large and Small" for solo flugelhorn and electronics was performed by Dan D'Addio at the Hartt School of Music. In addition to their notated works, they have composed music for films, most notably "Venus" by Jamie Griffiths, which was selected to be in the National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY) in 2020.They compose in Western classical notation, text notation, and graphic notation, often combining elements from each into one comprehensive score.
Grace studies and creates within artistic disciplines outside of music as well, including visual art, animation, sculpture, poetry, film, and fiber arts. Their current focus is multimedia creations including sound, circuitry, sculpture, film, and animation, with an emphasis on sensor activated sculpture. Collaboration with other artists continues to be a main facet of their work. Past collaborations have included filmmakers, animators, painters, composers, sculptors, instrumentalists, and poets. In the Spring of 2024, Grace collaborated with artist Chinning Liu to create a life size interactive sculpture, installed in the L Shape Gallery for the annual CalArts Expo. By not constraining themselves to a singular artistic discipline, their work deepens greatly. Their first recent solo installation, “What am I if Not A Thing?” was installed in the WaveCave at Calarts this past April. It included interactive sculpture and an immersive environment, with numerous found and recycled materials, smell, and sound. They have since completed two more solo installations, “Bound” in Fall 2025 and “Take Me With You” in the Spring 2025, improving upon their technical systems, sensor configuration, and interactivity. They will be in a collaborative installation work with artists M.A. Harms and Geneviève Cecile at Oracle Egg at the end of May.
For fun, Grace enjoys gardening, making espresso drinks, and spending time with their dog, Lady.