Erica Dicker, Violinist

Violinist Erica Dicker works in a wide variety of musical settings, bridging the realms of orchestral performance and experimental improvisation. Erica contributes her talents to various orchestras and contemporary music ensembles across the United States, serving as a substitute for the Grand Rapids Symphony and ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble). Erica is concertmaster of the Tri-Centric Orchestra, an ensemble initially founded to premiere and record the operas of Anthony Braxton. Erica has performed with Braxton’s Falling River Quartet and Diamond Curtain Wall Quartet at festivals in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Macedonia, Poland, and Turkey and appeared with the 12+1-tet at the 2012 Venice Biennale. Erica also writes about and curates performances of Braxton’s work, most recently for ICE at the 2017 Ojai Music Festival. 

A proponent of new music, Erica is a founding member of the contemporary chamber music collective Till By Turning and a member of Kylwyria, a commissioning horn trio based in New York City. Erica is violinist in Katherine Young's Pretty Monsters as well as Vaster Than Empires, an electro-acoustic collaboration with composer and sound artist Paul Schuette and percussionist Allen Otte. She has premiered works by many composers including pieces for solo violin written for her by Olivia Block, Turkar Gasimzada, Ryan Ingebritsen, and Katherine Young. Erica also writes and performs her own music, exploring the idiomatic modalities and textures of her instrument. Taking Auspices, an album of Erica’s improvised music, is available online via Tubapede Records and will be released as a limited-edition vinyl LP in Fall 2017.  

Erica earned degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (BM), the University of Minnesota (MM), and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (DMA). Her primary teachers include Gabriel Pegis, Marilyn McDonald, and Jorja Fleezanis.