About Me

Currently based in Dallas-Fort Worth, Bree Ahern is a versatile performing artist committed to building community through performing, teaching, and collaborating across art forms. A passionate solo and chamber musician, she has dedicated herself to presenting innovative programs to diverse audiences and using music to serve and enrich her community. 
     Bree is a core member of KINETIC, an artist-led ensemble committed to showcasing diverse, underrepresented, and newly composed classical music, and Monarch Chamber Players, a chamber ensemble dedicated to bringing classical music out of the concert hall and into accessible community spaces. Additionally, she has performed with Loop38, Musiqa Houston, Aperio: Music of the Americas, and Hoppa Project, which have allowed her to present new works for audiences throughout Houston. She firmly believes that contemporary music is accessible to all and has committed herself to introducing new works by engaging with audiences on a personal level, collaborating with living composers, and performing in unconventional venues. Bree is also passionate about pursuing interdisciplinary work and curating unique concert experiences that bridge art forms, having collaborated with dancers, artists, folk musicians, scientists, and more. Highlights from recent seasons include collaborations between Hoppa Project and the Bowen McCauley Dance Company at the Kennedy Center and Musiqa Houston and Noble Motion Dance at the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Arts. 
     Chamber music is central to Bree’s career and spans the expanse of standard to contemporary repertoire. She has studied under artists such as Norman Fischer, James Dunham, and Brian Connelly, and in masterclasses with the Takács, Cavani, Dover, and Artemis string quartets. She has performed alongside pianist Brian Connelly in his "Music in Context" series at Rice University and in the Mendelssohn-Haus in Leipzig, Germany, as part of an ongoing chamber music exchange between Rice University and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.” Outside of her studies, she has appeared at festivals such as the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, the Rossini Club in Nantucket, MA (featured on New Music USA), Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, Brevard Music Center, Hot Springs Music Festival, and Round Top Festival Institute (featured on WQXR). 

        Bree is actively engaged as an advocate for inclusivity and accessibility in the arts and believes that sharing music can create opportunities for impactful social change. From 2019-2022, she served as a fellow in Da Camera of Houston’s Young Artist Program, which uses music to enrich the lives of underserved communities in Houston, Texas. As a Teaching Artist for their Music Encounters program, she presented arts-integrated lessons in classrooms that explored skills such as collaboration, emotional awareness, and self expression. She has also led interactive performances for audiences in elementary schools, LGBTQ homeless youth at Montrose Grace Center, incarcerated youth in Harris County’s Juvenile Detention Center, and residents at Texas Children’s Hospital, MD Anderson, and Houston Methodist Hospital. As a member of Monarch Chamber Players, she uses music to build relationships between communities by performing concerts in accessible spaces such as parks, libraries, farm, front porches, and more. 
          A dedicated pedagogue, Bree has served as Visiting Assistant Professor of Cello at Oklahoma State University and on faculty at San Jacinto College in Pasadena, TX. She has given solo and chamber music masterclasses at Sam Houston State University, Oklahoma State University, and the Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, in addition to extensive clinic experience in Klein ISD, Houston ISD, Kinder HSPVA, and Strake Jesuit College Preparatory, to name a few. She has coached chamber music for AFA’s Chamber Music Academy & Summer Festival and Opus 1 Chamber Music School in Houston, TX, and served as the Faculty Chair and Chamber Music Coordinator for Fort Worth Youth Orchestras’ Chamber Music Program. From 2017-2019 she served as a Brown Foundation Teaching Fellow for the Young Children’s Division in the Shepherd School of Music’s Michael P. Hammond Preparatory Program, where she taught group classes based on Dalcroze eurhythmics and developed educational programming for elementary school audiences. Bree is Suzuki-certified in Books 1-8 and completed her training under renowned pedagogue Tanya Carey. She is a member of the Suzuki Association of the Americas and North Texas Suzuki Association. Her precollege students have experienced success at the local, regional, and national level, earning entry to opportunities such as NYO, NYO2, TMEA All-State Orchestras, Houston Youth Symphony, Fort Worth Youth Orchestras, Meadowmount School of Music, Stringwood Music Camp, and more. 
         Bree is a graduate of Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where she studied with Norman Fischer on full scholarship as a Brown Foundation Teaching Fellow. Previously, she studied with Meredith Blecha-Wells at Oklahoma State University, where she graduated summa cum laude on a full scholarship. When not practicing, performing, or teaching, Bree enjoys making art, practicing yoga, exploring the craft coffee scene in Dallas-Fort Worth, and spending time with her two orange cats. 
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