Michelle Brazier
Violinist Michelle Brazier has played with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra since 1996. Michelle grew up as a “Suzuki kid” in the 1970s, the daughter of a Suzuki piano teacher, attending the American Suzuki Institute every summer in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. A native of Chicago, Michelle began her violin studies at age three, piano at age seven, and during high school studied violin, viola, and chamber music with Almita and Roland Vamos at the Music Institute of Chicago. Her summer music schools included Interlochen, Meadowmount, Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine, and private study with Nell Gotkovsky in France.
Michelle completed her BA at Yale in English Literature and her PhD in English at Rutgers. As an undergraduate she studied violin performance with Syoko Aki in the Yale School of Music, was Assistant Concertmaster of the Yale Symphony Orchestra, and a member of the Yale Glee Club. Prior to moving to New Jersey for graduate school, Michelle lived in Missoula, Montana, where she was guest principal 2nd violin in the Missoula Symphony Orchestra. She served as concertmaster of the Garden State Philharmonic from 1996-2000. A lover of opera, symphonic choral works, and musical theater, she plays whenever possible with Princeton Pro Musica and Westminster Opera Theater. She has performed as a soloist at the Kennedy Center and in ensembles at Carnegie Hall, the Kimmel Center, and Orchestra Hall in Chicago, with highlights backing Ray Charles, k.d. lang, Barbara Cook, and Plácido Domingo.
Michelle currently divides her time between New Jersey and New South Wales, Australia. In 2024, she began working with the Opera Australia Orchestra and has become a valued freelancer in Sydney playing regularly with String Musicians Australia, Sydney Ensemble, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Orchestra, and for television and film recording. She lives with her Sydney-born wife and two dual-citizen children – a 10-year-old cellist and a 13-year-old violinist – both of whom study with Suzuki teachers in Sydney. Returning to her own musical roots, Michelle is also becoming certified as a Suzuki Violin Teacher in New South Wales.
