cello, voice, film
Sylvie Grace is a Los Angeles born, Chicago raised musician, composer, performance artist, and creative director. Her creative journey began at the age of six with vocal training, where she developed a distinctive affinity for jazz, and began cello at age 9. She was involved in many rigorous classical programs including the Chicago Youth Symphony orchestra and its chamber programs, but veered toward solo music just after high school, and so developed an interest in other genres and ways of approaching the cello outside of classical. She also acquired skills and experience in the Remix Project Chicago, and graduated in the first class.
Emerging from what came to be known as the Chicago Renaissance, Grace explored and defined her sound through collaborations within a dynamic community. She appears on music from Kevin Abrstract, Alex Wiley, Stefan Ponce, Pell, Deem Spencer, Jay Prince, Mick Jenkins, theMind, Kweku Collins, Melo, Chuck Strangers, Femdot, and more. Throughout this historic period with the world’s attention shifted onto the city, Grace street performed on the magnificent mile during the summer from Sophomore year of high school on. She brought this practice to Art Basel Miami and SXSW, New York and Nashville, whether in town touring for others or playing shows of her own. Her love of visual arts from throughout her life led her to collaborations with artists, from playing exhibitions to scoring them, and in 2017 her image as a street performer was commemorated by fine artist and AIR crew member Caesar Perez in a 3 story mural in her adopted neighborhood of Pilsen, still present today.
Grace continues to curate productions in Chicago and actively records in Los Angeles, exploring the kinds of ideas characterized as juxtopositions that have lit fires beneath cultural revolution for centuries.