About Dark Horse
Dark Horse Musik is chamber music “through the looking-glass.” It is musical storytelling as an experience - an invitation to not only hear it, but to see it, feel it, and live inside of it.
Our mission is to reimagine the concert hall experience for audiences and performers alike. Eschewing bare stages and black suits, we instead weave together story, atmosphere, and space through the creative use of set design, lighting, costume, and music with a strong theme and narrative arc. This approach to presenting music supplies fertile ground for audiences to have vivid, engaging experiences, leading to greater emotional connection and long-lasting memories. It also provides performers with inspiration to further their own connection to the music, just as actors slip into character.
As composers ourselves, we place great importance on supporting diverse voices and adding pieces to the repertoire. Two works are currently commissioned to be added to the Botanica program, and future projects will also include new works.
Dark Horse Musik was founded in 2024 by Cicely Parnas and Alexander Grimes, both string players, composers, and childhood friends. As classical musicians with skills and interests outside of our instruments, we bonded over a shared feeling of being outsiders to our own industry. The love for our art and frustration at the limits of how it is traditionally presented inspired us to start a project that satisfies our desire for high quality music combined with the influences from our individual artistic lives. Between us, we have explored other instruments, many genres of music, songwriting, film composition, audio engineering, music production, arranging, and more. It is the amalgamation of these influences and passions that resulted in Dark Horse Musik, a project that overturns the traditional model and unleashes the potential of classical music in the 21st century.
The Founders
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Founder
Cicely Parnas is a Berlin-based American musician who has established an international reputation as a cellist, arranger, composer, and teacher. Born in 1993, Cicely showed a passion for music from an early age and quickly became known as a prodigious talent in the classical music world.
At eleven years old, Cicely made her concerto debut, setting the stage for a career that would see her perform in some of the world's most prestigious venues. Her artistry and technical mastery were recognized in 2012 when she won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, a major competition that has launched the careers of many great musicians.
Some of the most notable performances of Cicely's career have taken place in iconic concert halls, including the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. She has soloed with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, The New York String Orchestra Seminar, Charleston Symphony, and many more. Her lifelong collaboration with her sister and violinist, Madalyn Parnas-Möller, has brought Duo Parnas to venues in Shanghai, Tel Aviv, Washington, DC, New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, and many other cities.
One of Cicely's joys as a musician is to arrange. She has adapted an array of pieces for various ensembles, including a collection of Nine Arias for Cello and Piano in collaboration with Brooklyn Duo. Her arrangements have been praised for their craft and ingenuity, and have earned her a devoted following among fans of classical music.
As a composer, Cicely’s mission is to tell stories. Through her musical language that spans a wide emotional range, listeners are drawn in via narrative. Her music can be found in several pieces for solo cello, string quartet, and in two documentaries. Most recently, Cicely was commissioned to write a solo cello piece by the great cellist Jennifer Kloetzel as a part of her Mission: Bach project.
A personally meaningful aspect of her work is her ongoing Commission Project, which began in 2012. Among her commissioned composers are Arsentiy Kharitonov, Jocelyn Hagen, Gabriel Gutierrez, Peter John, and Chris Beroes-Haigis. In 2023, Cicely ran a successful crowd-funding campaign to record Spoken in Waves, a piece by Beroes-Haigis for cello and string quartet, and in 2026, an expansion of the project will culminate in a recorded album of his music.
As a teacher, Cicely is a dedicated educator, regularly sharing knowledge and ideas in videos on social media and has a small private studio. In response to the difficulty of access to information in a traditionally one-on-one learning model, she donates her time to offer free online lessons.
Despite her love of classical music, Cicely is not content to limit herself to one genre. She has a wide range of musical interests and has explored many different styles over the course of her career. She is a member of the cello rock band Break of Reality, and she is currently studying at the Berklee College of Music for Electronic Music Production and Music Business. She has a casual project of singing and songwriting under the artist name Sissilee, and has one song released on bUMA RecordZ. Above all, she is always seeking to expand her knowledge and explore new avenues for musical creativity.
Through her many interests, Cicely demonstrates a deep curiosity and a desire to explore new modes of creativity and self-expression. She is a true Renaissance woman with a wealth of talents and a passion for life that is contagious to all those around her.
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Founder
Alexander is a violist and composer living in Seattle where he serves as principal viola of the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra. His love for music has driven him to explore its many disciplines. He holds a masters degree in film scoring from the Berklee School of Music, plays baroque viola, and has an unhealthy addiction to audio equipment. Fun fact: he was the sound engineer on the entire Botanica project!'
Chamber Music is his first love. Recent appearances have included the Seattle Chamber Music Society, Twelfth Night Ensemble, Caroga Lake Music Festival, and Archipelago Collective Music Festival.
As a session musician, he has performed on some of the most recognizable scores in film, television, and video games, including Destiny 2 by Michael Salvatori, Metal Gear Solid V, Call of Duty by Harry Gregson Williams, Fargo by Jeff Russo, and Outlander by Bear McCreary.
After years of working behind the scenes on some of the industry’s most iconic scores, Alex now brings his voice as a composer to the forefront. His recent projects include original scores for short films and immersive media, with a focus on emotionally rich, character-driven storytelling.