MaryGrace Bender

Cellist MaryGrace Bender pursues a multi-faceted career in performance, recording, and music education.  As a Suzuki teacher, Bender seeks to reach every child through music and prides herself in her students.  Bender teaches privately in Nashville and is on faculty at Union University.  As an avid collaborative and chamber musician, Bender recently founded the Nashville Chamber Music Society and performs frequently with the ensemble in and around Nashville.  Other recent performance highlights include a concert with the McDuffie Center for Strings in Carnegie Hall, concerts as Young Artist for The Rome Chamber Music Festival in Italy, and orchestrally recording under Philip Glass’s Orange Mountain Music label which The Wall Street Journal reviewed as, “impeccably polished.”  Bender’s extensive studies include a master's degree from The Cleveland Institute of Music in Cello Performance and Suzuki Pedagogy, and an undergraduate degree from The Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University.  She has spent summers at The National Repertory Orchestra, Meadowmount School of Music, The Rome Chamber Music Festival, Brevard Music Festival, Chautauqua Summer Institute, and the Aspen Music Festival and School as a New Horizon's fellow.  Past influential teachers include Dr. Melissa Kraut, Hans Jørgen Jensen, Julie Albers, and Dr. Felix Wang.  A recipient of the James T. McAfee, Jr. Endowed Vision and Leadership Scholarship, Bender passionately promotes the arts at a grassroots level by teaching and performing in schools, retirement homes, homeless shelters, and concert halls alongside her professional performances and recording projects.  Bender enjoys teaching English to international students through her own company, Talk2Crew, spending an evening playing chamber music with friends, and anything outdoors.

My teaching style consists of a methodical approach to cello playing and music creating.  As a Suzuki-trained teacher, my students learn to listen deeply to their own tone production while listening to all the great works along the way.  I have curated a listening playlist that accompanies each lesson plan so that the student develops technically while developing the ability to listen well.  I love to laugh and become friends with my students as we set achievable goals together -- my job is to help you understand each element of music and cello playing to grasp that goal and push you towards it!  I offer a free sample lesson, please reach out!