Rebecca McFaul, Violin

Violinist Rebecca McFaul has been praised for her “freedom” and “brilliance” (New York Concert Review), crafting performances that “glide through with a dancer’s grace” (Charlotte Observer). A founding member of the Fry Street Quartet, Rebecca has devoted her career to the art of chamber music, collaborating with many of today’s leading composers and musicians. The string quartet’s expansive repertoire, expressive range, and deep connection with audiences have shaped her identity as an artist.

Rebecca studied violin performance at the Oberlin Conservatory with Marilyn McDonald and later at Northwestern University with Gerardo Ribeiro, where she was awarded a Civic Orchestra Fellowship. Under the mentorship of Marc Johnson of the Vermeer Quartet, she co-founded the Fry Street Quartet. Early in the ensemble’s journey, the FSQ received a three-year Rural Residency grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Invitations from the late Isaac Stern to perform at Carnegie Hall, the Jerusalem Music Center, and to serve as Cultural Ambassadors to the Balkan States—through a tour sponsored by Carnegie Hall and the U.S. Department of State—helped launch the quartet’s international career.

Beyond her work with the FSQ, Rebecca has appeared as a guest artist at festivals including the Bonneville Chamber Music Festival, the Tony and Friends Festival, and Festival Amadeus. She performs sonata repertoire regularly on the CCA Faculty Chamber Music Series and the Fry Street Chamber Music Festival Concert Series, and collaborates in mixed ensembles on the NOVA Chamber Music Series in Salt Lake City. Her expertise as a Bartók interpreter was highlighted in a recent performance of his Violin Sonata No. 2 with pianist Mayumi Matzen, described as “outstanding in its mercurial flips of emotional character” (The Utah Review).

A passionate advocate for the role of the arts in addressing societal challenges, Rebecca helped launch The Crossroads Project—a landmark collaboration between the FSQ and physicist Dr. Robert Davies that merges music, science, and storytelling to confront climate change and ecological disruption. This transdisciplinary work reflects Rebecca’s lifelong connection to the natural world, nurtured by childhood summers in Wisconsin’s Northwoods and a home filled with classical music. Her commitment to ecological listening continues through performances and premieres of nature-focused works by Gabriela Lena Frank, Laura Kaminsky, Aida Shirazi, Akshaya Tucker, and others.

At Utah State University’s Caine College of the Arts, Rebecca is Professor of Professional Practice in violin and chamber music. She has been instrumental in developing the String Program and mentoring students who have gone on to leading graduate schools, competitions, and teaching positions. She teaches each summer at the Fry Street Chamber Music Festival and has served as guest faculty at Madeline Island Music Camp, Oficina de Música de Curitiba (Brazil), the Einfeldt Chamber Music Seminar, and Credo at Oberlin. Her online summer technique intensives have extended her teaching to a broader community of violinists.

Rebecca’s partnership with science extends into her personal life: she is married to physicist and Crossroads collaborator Dr. Robert Davies. Together, they apply permaculture principles to their Logan home, aiming for net-zero energy in a retrofitted farmhouse where they tend gardens—and three cats: Luna, Rufus, and Archibald. Her ongoing inquiry into right relationship with a complex and changing world also takes the form of reflective writing, shared through a growing body of essays on Substack exploring the intersections of art, systems thinking, and higher education.

She performs on a Pietro Giacomo Rogeri violin, ca. 1720, and a bow by Nicolas Maire—both generously on loan from private patrons.