Owen Cromwell, violin, is very excited to be performing at the Knapweed festival this summer! Growing up in Mukilteo, Washington, he always enjoys sharing his love of music with others around the western United States.

By day, he is a software engineer at Microsoft for one of their cloud infrastructure microservice platforms. By night, he is a frequent collaborator with many community-led orchestras and ensembles in the greater Seattle area. Currently, he serves as assistant concertmaster of the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra, and principal second violin of Solstice Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he holds memberships with both the Sound Chamber Players, Emerald City Chamber Orchestra, and has performed as a guest artist with the Ladies Musical Club of Seattle.

Previously, he served as co-concertmaster of the St. Olaf Orchestra in Northfield, MN, and was a soloist on their tour around Washington and Oregon in 2022. His true love, however, is with chamber music. He is an active member of two string quartets which give biannual performances around northern Seattle, and he is a former member of the Høyde Quartet along with Grace which was a finalist in the Frances-Walton Competition and a finalist and audience prize winner of the Saint Paul String Quartet Competition in 2022. He graduated from St. Olaf College in 2023 with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Computer Science and Music, where he studied with Francesca Anderegg, Ray Shows, and Charles Gray.

He is incredibly grateful to Grace and everyone behind the scenes for all of their effort in putting this festival together and for the opportunity to make music with these wonderful people!