At age 11, cellist Johannes Gray is walking off with top awards as fast as competitions present themselves. As a toddler he was drawn to the Bach Cello Suites and began cello studies at age 2½. Most recently, the Wilmette 6th grader and cello student of Gilda Barston and Hans Jensen at the Music Institute of Chicago, was the Overall Winner of the Walgreens National Concerto Competition held at the Midwest Young Artists campus in Fort Sheridan.

He also took first place in the primary division of the 2007 Society of American Musicians Competition, the Junior Division of the 2008 Sejong Music Competition and in the Youth and Junior Divisions of the 2005 and 2006 Chinese Fine Arts Society Music Competitions. In 2006 he performed at pre-concert events for the Chicago Symphony's Gala as a part of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project.

Already an active chamber music performer, he plays with his string quartet, Shades of Gray, and a piano trio. He has played live on WFMT and in master classes for Lynn Harrell, Amit Peled, Janos Starker, Tim Eddy and Aldo Parisot. At MIC he also studies piano with SooYoung Lee and composition with Matt Hagle. In February 2009 he performed the first movement of the Dvorak Cello Concerto with the MYA Symphony Orchestra at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall.

Gray performs on a small Montagnana model cello designed and crafted for him in 2009 by Lawrence Wilke.

Johannes Gray

Handel
Overture to Judas Maccabeus

Corelli
Concerto Grosso in G Minor
Op.6, No.8 (Christmas Concerto)

Boccherini
Sinfonia in D Minor,
Op.12, No.4 (La Casa Del Diavolo)

Dvořák
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra
in B Minor, Op. 104
Johannes Gray, Cello