Gregory Staples

Artist Picture

Gregory Staples

First Violin

DSO member since 1999

Violinist Greg Staples joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in December 1999. A native Detroiter, Staples returned to the Motor City from Atlanta, Georgia where he previously served in the first violin section of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra since 1994 and was appointed Acting Assistant Concertmaster in the fall of 1998.

The son of former DSO Concertmaster Gordon Staples and longtime first violin section member Beatriz Budinsky, Staples shared Orchestra Hall stage with both his mother and his former teacher, Principal Second Violin Geoffrey Applegate, during their tenure in the orchestra. As winner of the Detroit Symphony Civic Youth Orchestra’s concerto competition, Staples soloed with the DSO in 1987 and again in 1993. In 1988, Staples was one of seven American violinists chosen to participate in the first American-Soviet Youth Symphony, which toured the United States and the former Soviet Union.

An Artist Diploma graduate of the Indiana University School of Music, Staples is an avid chamber music enthusiast and performs on a 1775 Ferdinand Gagliano violin. Staples has appeared with the Grosse Pointe Symphony Orchestra and the Birmingham Bloomfield Symphony as well as at the Grand Teton Music Festival and the Holland Music Festival.