Charles Gray is professor of music at St. Olaf College, where he is in his 42nd year of teaching violin, viola, and chamber music. Gray is the senior member of the 7 string faculty members at St. Olaf, and oversees an enrollment of over 110 string students. He was a regular performer with the Minnesota Orchestra from 1991–2010 and previously a member of the Grand Rapids Symphony and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestras. Professor Gray is the director of the St. Olaf Summer Music Academy and has the honor of being named “Master string teacher of the year in MN” by the American String Teachers Association. He attended Wheaton College, the University of Michigan, and the Eastman School of Music. His major teachers include Paul Makanowitzky, Sylvia Rosenberg, Atar Arad, and members of the Cleveland Quartet. Gray was violist of the Casella String Quartet, winner of the Cleveland Quartet Competition, and the top prize at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. He has performed as a solo recitalist at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago and the Aspen, Steamboat Springs, and Breckenridge Music Festivals in Colorado. He has given solo performances at the National American Choral Directors and National American Guild of Organists conventions and has appeared numerous times as violin soloist on NPR’s Performance Today. Mr. Gray often tours with the St. Olaf Choir and has performed with them more than 400 times as violin/viola soloist. He often serves as a string judge at important national competitions, including MMTA (March 2022) and the Chicago Symphony Young Artist Competition (January 2023 and 2026). Previous students are now members of the Cleveland, Minnesota Orchestras, the Dallas, Grand Rapids, Atlanta, Phoenix and Seattle Symphonies, and the Associate Concertmaster of the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra as well as numerous college string professors. Charles was previously a LSM faculty member during its earlier years from 1983-1995, before devoting his summers to playing with the MN orchestra summer season. Presently, in addition to college teaching, he is on the staff of SEMYO (Southeast MN Youth Orchestra in Rochester), conductor of a 45 member orchestra at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in Mahtomedi, MN, and private instructor of 17 HS and middle school students.