A native of Dallas, Texas, Cynthia Black enjoys performing and studying baroque and modern viola, and more recently the baroque violin. After completing undergraduate and graduate studies with Robert Vernon and Lynne Ramsey at the Cleveland Institute of Music, she is currently a student at Case Western Reserve University under Dr. Julie Andrijeski. She is the recipient of CIM’s Alumni Association award, the Robert Vernon Prize in Viola, and Young Master Award from Texas Commission on the Arts.

As a baroque violist and violinist, Ms. Black has most recently performed with Apollo’s Fire, Fort Wayne Bach Collegium, Three Notch’d Road Baroque, and Publick Musick. She continues as a member of the CWRU/CIM Baroque Orchestra, serving as Concertmaster and formerly Principal Viola. She has participated in Oberlin’s Baroque Performance Institute, and recently performed on vielle at the Boston Early Music Festival as part of CWRU’s Collegium, studying under Debra Nagy.

An avid chamber musician, Ms. Black performs throughout northeast Ohio and has appeared in performance alongside artists such as Barry Shiffman, Denis Brott, Nokuthula Ngwenyama, and Matt Haimovitz. She has spent her most recent summers at the Juilliard Quartet Seminar, Banff Centre’s Chamber Music Residency, Kneisel Hall, and Sarasota Music Festival. As a member of the former Calliope Quartet, she performed nearly thirty outreach concerts with her colleagues as part of the Banff International String Quartet Competition’s Quartet in the Community in 2010.

Cynthia loves living in Cleveland, OH and, in her free time, enjoys making ice cream and bundt cakes.