The Bennett Conservatory of Music Alumni

Peter Salaff studied violin at the Bennett Conservatory from age 10 through high school.  He was director of the String Chamber Music department at Cleveland Institute of Music where he taught since 1995. As a founding member of the Cleveland Quartet he recorded more than 50 chamber works and received a Grammy Award, six Grammy nominations, and Best of the Year honors from Time and Stereo Review. The quartet toured the former Soviet Union, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Israel, the United States, Europe, and Canada.

Mr. Salaff received Yale School of Music Alumni Association's Certificate of Merit. He has performed as concerto soloist with orchestras and in recital in the U.S. and South America. Ensembles he has coached have won international prizes including eight Naumburg Awards, Banff International String Quartet Competition Awards, Coleman Chamber Ensemble Awards, Fischoff National Chamber Music Awards, among others.

Mr. Salaff has served on the faculties of the University of Concepción (Chile), State University of New York at Buffalo, and the Eastman School of Music. He has also taught at numerous festivals, including Interlochen, Chamber Music in the Mountains at Echo Glen, the Aspen Music Festival and School, and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Germany, the Perlman Music Program, PhoenixPhest in Ann Arbor, and the Chamber Music Connection in Columbus, Ohio, and has coached chamber music and given masterclasses at conservatories and universities in the United States, Germany, Japan, Israel, and New Zealand.

Mr. Salaff has been a judge at many chamber music competitions, including the Yellow Springs Competition, the London International String Quartet Competition, the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, the Plowman Chamber Music Competition, and the Coleman Chamber Music Association Competition.

Content courtesy: CityMusic Cleveland, Inc. and Music Academy of the West / Photographs: Barney Taxel