Cynthia Black, originally from Dallas, Texas, studies viola at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Robert Vernon. Before coming to Cleveland, she studied with Barbara Sudweeks of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Most recently, she was awarded the Robert Vernon Prize in Viola at the Cleveland Institute of Music and was chosen to receive the Young Master Award from the Texas Commission on the Arts.

As a chamber musician, Ms. Black has performed with her colleagues at CIM’s Mixon Hall, Severance Hall’s Reinberger Chamber Hall, Juilliard’s Paul Hall, Mannes College, and the Banff Centre. She has coached with Peter Salaff and members of the Cavani Quartet, Juilliard Quartet, Brentano Quartet, and Emerson Quartet. She has spent her past summers at Kneisel Hall, Sarasota Music Festival, the Banff Centre, Kent/Blossom Music, and the Juilliard Quartet Seminar.

Ms. Black is a member of the CIM/Case Western Baroque Orchestra under the direction of Julie Andrijeski. She also plays with Ensemble Secundum Silentium, a small chamber orchestra dedicated to performing new devotional music in churches around Cleveland. Since September 2008, Ms. Black has been the youth choir intern at St. Paul Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights, Ohio under the leadership of Dr. Richard and Beth Nelson.