Colleen Braid is a native of Cleveland who began viola lessons at the age of 9.
She studied viola at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and she earned a Bachelor of Music Degree in Viola Performance and a Bachelor of Music Education Degree from Baldwin-Wallace in 1972.
In her early years she performed with the Canton (Ohio) Symphony and Canada Symphony in Montreal while her husband, Jim, was a member of the Montreal Symphony.
When Jim became a member of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 1974, they moved to Cincinnati. Colleen became a member of the DPO in 1974 and became Assistant Principal Viola in 1997.
She is a member of the DPO String Quintet and teaches in the SPARK Program at the kindergarten level. She also has played with the Cincinnati Chamber and Ballet Orchestras and has been a substitute with the CSO.
Colleen has taught viola at the Stivers School for the Arts and at Wright State University and currently teaches at the McCutcheon Music Studio in Centerville.
She was a founding member of the Prelude Strings Summer Chamber Music Festival in Kettering and has performed each summer as Principal Viola with the Lakeside Symphony Orchestra (LSO) since 1981.
Colleen and Jim have three daughters and five grandchildren. One daughter, Allison, is a cellist with the Louisville Orchestra and Principal Cello with the LSO.