Alan Grubner — New York Violinist & Composer

Alan Grubner graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College with a B.A. in English. While his academic focus was on contemporary American poetry, he received both the 1998 MacDonald-Smith Music Prize for High Achievement in Musical Performance and the Heiman-Rosenthal Ensembles Award for High Achievement in the Creative Arts. Subsequently, without any prior music school experience, Berklee College of Music awarded him a Graduate Assistantship Scholarship as its first ever violinist to be accepted into the Masters in Jazz Studies program.

He has been an adjunct professor of violin and improvisation studies at Five Towns College, and he remains committed to giving back to the community through appearances as a teaching artist throughout the U.S. In addition to his dedication to working throughout under-resourced areas in New York City, Alan maintains an inspiring roster of private students; both on staff at the Brooklyn Waldorf School and in private practice.

Alan's teaching method focuses on the immediacy of inner (evaluative) and outer (somatic) feedback as friendly information. Over the years, silent retreat practice in IMS lineage Insight Meditation led Alan to an ongoing discovery: there is a path whereby we can cultivate a friendly, non-judgmental and discerning awareness. He remains committed to growing on this path; understanding music as a vehicle, a wisdom path that we can travel mindfully, ultimately leading us—beyond the instrument—into a field of mutual human Understanding, Wisdom & Love.

The debut album from Alan Grubner's Firelight Ensemble, Long Road Home, features luminaries and Grammy Award winning artists, Aoife O'Donovan, Sonya Kitchell and Philip Hamilton. From 2017–2023 Mr. Grubner was a member of the acclaimed bluegrass band, Nefesh Mountain. Among others, their 2018 and 2021 releases, Beneath the Open Sky and Songs for the Sparrows feature him on fiddle, as does the groundbreaking film, Beasts of the Southern Wild. His work on violin and viola appears on multiple episodes of the Emmy Award-winning TV series, Louie.

A longtime collaborator with renowned jazz singer, Allan Harris, Mr. Grubner is a featured soloist in Harris' celebrated off-broadway musical, Cross that River. In 2024 he joined Mr. Harris' Poetry of Jazz project, and he appears on Harris' latest release, The Poetry of Jazz (Live). His string arranging and solo work appears on many albums including James Maddock's The Green, Jenn Beaupre's Reach Out, and on singles from Leaders of the Shift and Seth Lojo Johnson.

Alan has appeared on stage at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium for fourteen concerts, thus far. He has performed and/or recorded with Eddie Palmieri, Jerry Douglas, Jason Lindner, Edmar Castaneda, Joshua Geisler, Uyanga Bold, Nefesh Mountain, Sam Bush, David Grier, Tony Trischka, John Doyle, Jeff Taylor, Olivia Newton-John, Paquito D'Rivera, Christian McBride, John Shannon, Dana Leong, Chieli Minucci's Special EFX, Larry Harlow (Lincoln Center), Rana Santacruz (Lincoln Center), Sonya Kitchell and award-winning film composer, Garth Stevenson. His newest works as a Spacious.FM artist feature its founder, Joshua Geisler; master of the bansuri and ambient guitar cloud, as well as other luminaries in the ambient art space.

Alan has been a featured guest on multi-platinum producer and composer Anthony J. Resta's podcast, Studio Secrets A to Z. His playing has been featured on CNN, Sirius XM, at the Shanghai World Expo in 2010, ABC TV's Good Morning America, The Grand Ole Opry (Nashville, TN), Levon Helm Studios (Woodstock, NY), Woodsongs (Lexington, KY), WFMU, WKCR (NY, NY), WSM (Nashville, TN), WWOZ (New Orleans, LA), WNCW (Asheville, NC), Ditty TV (Memphis, TN).