Up-and-coming violist tours the world all while teaching in Newport-Mesa School District

Brought up with music surrounding him in a small town in Washington, Alex Granger decided from a young age that music was where his passions lay. But it was out of college, as a freelance musician, that the now professional musician found his love for teaching.

A violist for the Webern String Quartet, Granger balances his time between performing with his wife and best friends, and teaching elementary students the fundamentals of orchestra music and string instruments.

“We’re not only performers, we’re educators,” Granger said.

Granger began playing music in his youth, taking to the violin and playing alongside his mother, a pianist, at home. It was through this easy accessibility that Granger naturally gravitated toward music as a career.

“I never felt like I had to make a choice, actually, it just felt natural,” Granger said. “My mom was a pianist growing up, and always accompanied me when I was performing. 
So, music was always a part of what I was doing as a child, and when the decision came for college, it wasn’t really something I had to think about, it just was the obvious next step.”

The young musician attended the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, earning his degree in violin performance. In 2022, his big break in music would arrive as he would go on to play in Vienna for the Arnold Schöenberg Center, launching a residency as the Webern String Quartet alongside fellow musicians Stella Cho, Chiai Tajima and Benjamin Hoffman.

“It was a huge undertaking, and through that experience we realized that this is something that we wanted to do long term together,” Granger said. “So, over the last four years, we’ve had things come up from that residency. We got a recording label and partnership in Belgium, and we have plans to record even more with them in the near future. We’ve established ourselves, both locally, in L.A., Orange County and San Diego, and then also nationally [and internationally].”

Committed to intimate interpretations of works from the classical repertoire to newly written music, it was in the quartet that Granger fell in love with the viola, a bowed string instrument of the violin family that is both slightly larger than a violin, and has a deeper, more mellow, low pitch.

“Even though my degrees are in violin, I was asked to play viola in the context of chamber music, mainly string quartet. Then, when the pandemic came, I thought, ‘I’m kind of enjoying viola, so I’m just going to practice and see where it goes.’ I ended up just enjoying it so much that I basically made the switch and just play viola now,” Granger said. “I fell in love with the sound of the instrument.”

A move into teaching

Before there was a quartet, Granger freelanced out of college, teaching and tutoring children how to play the violin.

Finding the right connections at the right time, a parent involved on the board of an Irvine charter school asked Granger to consider teaching full-time. He took the position, earned his teaching credentials, and ultimately made the switch to Killybrooke Elementary School in Costa Mesa three years ago, going from a one-man show to a small piece of a large teaching puzzle.

“The idea of coming and working together with 23 other music teachers at the primary level was enticing to me, so I made the switch, and this is my third year here in the [Newport-Mesa] district,” Granger said. “When I came to Killybrooke Elementary, there had never been a full-time music teacher before, and we didn’t have any stringed instruments, which is what I obviously feel the most passionate about teaching.”

Committed to giving his students their best possibility at learning the instruments and appreciating the artform, Granger quickly set out to make a difference at the school.

“I immediately started writing a bunch of grants; within the first two years, we received over $30,000 of grants for bringing instruments to the school. Now we have over 80 stringed instruments,” Granger said. “We have three double basses, 12 cellos, 12 violas and 40 violins. So, we have two orchestras this year at the school, and I am just building a program here, trying to teach what I’ve learned to these kids.”

Aside from the grant money he was awarded, including a 10-year grant from the Save the Music Foundation, Granger states that a major contributor to his success in teaching is due to the district, the city and the support he receives from fellow teachers and faculty.

While the Webern String Quartet must become the musicians’ priority as they continue to grow and manage their work, Granger insists that his love for teaching is strong and his desire to continue in the future is ever present.

“The thing about my life before I was a credentialed music teacher is that 100% of my work occurred outside the hours of Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. So, adding this to my life didn’t change anything about my life as a performing musician and as an educator, as far as teaching private lessons and things like that. So, the big challenge has been to prioritize the things that I feel are most important long term, as an educator and as a performer,” he said.

The Webern String Quartet is set to perform over 30 concerts this year, playing both nationally and internationally, with plans to record in Belgium in the summer. More information about the quartet, their upcoming performances and other information is available at webernquartet.com.

— Carroll is a contributor to the Daily Pilot