Biography

Winner of a 2023-24 Czech Fulbright Award, Violinist Avery Morris is an innovative and multifaceted musician, whose most recent performances specialize in the works of Czech composer and Holocaust victim, Gideon Klein. Praised for her sensitivity and musicianship, Avery has been described as having "the ability to enchant the listener, purely with the integrity and mannerism-free approach of her interpretation" — Yehonatan Berick. Her Fulbright project entitled “Gideon Klein’s Lost Works and the Legacy of Czech Musical Modernism” focused on transcriptions of Klein’s pre-Terezín compositions, specifically his solo violin pieces which she is currently preparing for performance and publication. 

As a violinist, Avery has performed at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, the DiMenna Center, Colburn’s Zipper Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and internationally at Prague’s Rudolfinum, Martinu Hall, National Concert Hall in Warsaw, Slovak Radio Hall, Vienna Konzerthaus, Berlin Konzerthaus, and Canada's National Arts Centre among others. 

Avery has appeared as a soloist with the Prague Academy Chamber Orchestra (KOA), The Orchestra Now (TŌN) at Bard College, Palisades Symphony, Crossroads Chamber Orchestra and her performances have been broadcasted on WQXR, KUSC and KCSN Radio. In their upcoming 2024-25 season, she will be joining the Prague Academy Chamber Orchestra (KOA) again for performances of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos and Sibelius’ Concerto.

As a chamber musician, she has performed with prominent musicians David Requiro, Meta Weiss, Clancy Newman, Tomáš Jamník, Josef Spaček, Ivo Kahánek, Eva Krestová and members of the Daedalus, Fibonacci, Isidore, Pavel Haas, Manhattan, and Avalon String Quartets. She has worked with composers Joan Tower, Paul Wiancko and Juri Seo. Recent collaborative highlights include a video recording of Gideon Klein’s Quarter Tone Duo for Violin and Viola (produced by Czellor Films and to be released in 2025) with Eva Krestová, principal violist of the Czech Philharmonic, recorded in the former Klein family residence in Prague – as well as a 2023 performance at the United States Ambassador’s Residence in Prague joined by cellist Tomáš Jamník and pianist Ivo Kahánek.

A passionate educator, Avery has given lectures at Bard College Berlin, the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (HAMU) and Stony Brook University. Avery has been on the faculty of Ševčík Academy (Junior Academy) and held violin masterclasses in Cali, Colombia – through a mentorship project, she co-founded, which won a Davis Projects for Peace Prize. Featured in PBS documentary, “Arts and the Mind” about music education, Avery sees her role as a teacher, as facilitating a community of expanded listening while also amplifying voices that need to be heard. Her passion for teaching stems from a strong ability to problem solve, appreciating and adjusting to the qualities that make each student unique; Offering a different and often multidisciplinary lens for each student.

Currently a Doctoral Candidate at Stony Brook University in New York, she studies with Jennifer Frautshi, Arnaud Sussmann, Hagai Shaham and Philip Setzer, and was a member of the Emerson String Quartet Institute for two years. She completed her M.Mus at the University of Ottawa as a student of Yehonatan Berick, and graduated from Bard Conservatory where she studied with Weigang Li of the Shanghai Quartet and Shmuel Ashkenasi. Avery has attended numerous festivals including the Heifetz Institute, Sarasota Music Festival, Bowdoin Music Festival, Chautauqua Institution, Maine Chamber Music Seminar, Icicle Creek Chamber Music Festival, Banff Centre and Pablo Casals Festival in Prades, France. She has performed in masterclasses for Christian Tetzlaff, Jonathan Crow, Daniel Phillips and Ani Kavafian. In addition to her violin studies, Avery completed a degree in Mathematics at Bard College. Her senior thesis was entitled, “From Random to Organized: The Architecture of Neural Networks During Development.”