User:Cellobj/sandbox/BJ Griffin (musician)

BJ Griffin (musician) BJ Griffin "This Singing Cellist", born Jean-Baptiste Griffin Jr is performer and teacher in the Tidewater area of Virginia. BJ found his path in music playing his family’s heirloom violin in Virginia Beach 5th grade strings. In middle school, his teacher asked him to play cello because there was a lack of student interest and he has been in love with the sound ever since.

Locally, he was a member of the Virginia Youth Symphony Orchestra and Hampton Roads Chamber players where he performed in various places nationally as well as internationally in China and Greece. He went on to study at James Madison University as a music education, cello performance, and music industry major. In addition to his cello studies, he began singing career at JMU as a soloist with the all male a capella group Exit 245 where he traveled and performed up and down the east coast. During his time in the group Exit 245 appeared on the Best of College A Cappella with Exit 245 (Nationwide Compilation) twice. BJ appeared as a soloist with Exit 245 appearance on Voices Only 2008 (Worldwide Compilation) singing Canned Heat, made popular by Jamiroquoi.

BJ began his teaching career during college in 2007 at Shenandoah Academy High School and Elementary school where he taught private lessons and started a strings program, while also keeping up a private violin and cello studio in the Shenandoah Valley. He spent his summers at the Bay View Music Conservatory is Petoskey, MI for 4 years and has been a guest artist at different music festivals on the east coast and the mid-west. After James Madison University he taught music at Bronx Academy High School in New York City while gigging as a free-lance cellist. BJ also became faculty at Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan where he taught lessons, coached sectionals, and performed in faculty recitals. While at Interlochen he explored singing and playing cello at the same time and debuted as a singing cellist with a world premiere at a faculty composers recital in 2011. Since then, BJ has been teaching and performing in the Tidewater area as a solo artist and collaborating with other local artists. In addition to his active performance schedule, as faculty with the Academy of Music BJ has a private studio and teaches at the Park View Violin program in Portsmouth public schools. As a singing cellist, BJ hopes to expand the boundaries of classically trained musicians to a broader audience and conjure even more possibilities to spread the joy of music....

Find out more about bj at www.bjgriffinmusic.com