Artist Bios

Hailed by Yo-Yo Ma as the “ideal musician of the 21st Century,” Boston-based Mike Block is a pioneering cellist, composer, and educator. Since 2005, he has been a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, which earned a Grammy in 2017 for their album, “Take Me Home.” In addition, using The Block Strap, Mr. Block was the first cellist to play standing up in Carnegie Hall.

Full bio: https://www.mikeblockmusic.com/bio

Innovative cellist Nick Canellakis has performed with orchestras across the US, Europe, and Asia. He is an artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and was recently named Artistic Director of Chamber Music Sedona in Arizona. He frequently performs with duo collaborator and pianist-composer Michael Brown. Besides the cello, Mr. Canellakis enjoys filmmaking and acting.

Full bio: https://www.nicholascanellakis.com/biography

Gautier Capuçon has performed with many of the world’s renowned conductors and musicians He is the founder and leader of the Classe d’Excellence de Violoncelle at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris and has soloed with the foremost philharmonic orchestras around the world. Mr. Capuçon studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris with Philippe Muller and Annie Cochet-Zakine, and later with Heinrich Schiff in Vienna. He performs on a 1701 Matteo Goffriller cello called “L’ambassadeur.”

Full bio: https://www.gautiercapucon.com/bio.php?lg=EN

First Prize winner of the 6th International Paulo Competition, American cellist Brannon Cho is an emerging artist who is the recipient of the 2020 Janos Starker Foundation Award. Mr. Cho has appeared as a soloist with the top orchestras around the world and has shared the stage with chamber artists such as Anne-Sophie Mütter and Joshua Bell. He performs on a 1668 rare cello by Antonio Casini.

Full bio: https://brannoncho.com/about

Louisiana native John-Henry Crawford was the 2019 First Prize Winner of the IXth International Carlos Prieto Cello Competition and was named Young Artist of the Year by the Classical Recording Foundation. He is the creator of the #1000DayJourney on Instagram, in which he filmed videos of practice for one thousand days. Mr. Crawford performs on a rare 200-year-old European cello smuggled out of Austria by his grandfather, Dr. Robert Popper.

Full bio: https://johnhenrycrawford.com/bio/

David Finckel is the former Emerson String Quartet cellist and has been co-artistic director of the Chamber Music Society since 2004. Along with his wife Wu Han, he is founder and artistic director of the chamber music festival Music@Menlo. He is also on faculty at The Juilliard School and Stony Brook University. In 2012, he received Musical America’s Musician of the Year Award. Mr. Finckel is the first American student of Mstislav Rostropovich.

Full bio: https://www.chambermusicsociety.org/about/artists/david-finckel/

21-year-old American cellist Zlatomir Fung is the youngest winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition. He has also taken top prizes at the 2018 Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld International String Competition and the 2016 George Enescu International Cello Competition. He has performed with orchestras across North America and studied at The Juilliard School under Richard Aaron and Timothy Eddy.

Full bio: https://www.zlatomirfung.com/about

German cellist Alban Gerhardt has impacted audiences worldwide with his musicality, stage presence, and artistic curiosity. He has soloed with the Berlin Philharmoniker, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, London Philharmonic, and the Philadelphia and Chicago orchestras. He has recorded over 30 CDs for Hyperion, EMI, Deutsche Grammophone, and others. He plays on a 1710 Matteo Goffriller cello.

Full bio: https://albangerhardt.com/about/

Grand Prize winner of the 3rd Gaspar Cassado International Cello Competition, cellist Sihao He has performed extensively as both a solo and chamber musician. Most recently, he won 3rd prize in Munich’s ARD International Music Competition. He is currently a Bowers Program Artist with the Chamber Music Society. His concert engagements have taken place before audiences at the Metropolitan Museum, the U.S Supreme Court Historical Society in Washington D.C, and at the Myra Hess Concert series in Chicago.

Full bio: https://sihaohe.com/about

Alexander Hersh is co-artistic director of NEXUS Chamber Music and has performed with orchestras such as the Houston Symphony and the Boston Pops. He is also an accomplished chamber musician, performing at festivals such as Marlboro, Music@Menlo, and Ravinia. A fourth-generation string player, Mr. Hersh plays a G.B. Rogeri cello on generous loan from a sponsor through Darnton & Hersh Fine Violins.

Full bio: https://www.alexanderhersh.com/bio

Austin Huntington has been principal cellist of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra since June 2015. Among many accomplishments, he is the Grand Prize winner of the 2012 Irving M. Klein International String Competition and the 2011 Stulberg International String Competition. He is on faculty at the University of Indianapolis, where he is also the cellist of The Indianapolis Quartet.

Full bio: https://www.austinhuntington.com/about.html

Praised for her inexhaustible curiosity, Christine is one of the most versatile artists of her generation who performs extensively as a soloist and a chamber musician. She is the first prizewinner of the International Isang Yun Competition and a top laureate of the Queen Elisabeth Competition among her numerous competition victories. Her debut album, Voyage was released in May 2021 through the recording label, Outhere, where she invites her listeners on a journey of self-discovery and building cultural bridges. In her hopes to make classical music a more relevant force in our society, she has launched Christine’s Notes on Youtube and carries out her bi-weekly live interview series with the top musicians of her generation on Instagram. She is also the creative director for the “We’ve got your Bach” project during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing music and comfort to people and providing a platform for the musicians to continue creating and performing during a challenging period. Committed to serving her community through music, Christine has organized fundraisers and charity concerts to bring unity through music. In her last fundraiser, she collected funds to build a moveable library for underprivileged children in North Philadelphia, where she considers it her second home.

Full bio: https://www.christine-j-lee.com/biography

German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser has performed with the Berliner Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, BBC Philharmonic at the Proms, London Symphony, and more. He debuted commissioned works by Julia Wolfe, Ellen Reid, Thomas Agerfeld Olesen, Johannes Kalitzke, Jelena Firsowa and Andrew Norman. He was the top prize winner at the 2002 International Tchaikovsky Competition and won the Brahms Prize in 2014. Mr. Moser plays on an Andrea Guarneri Cello from 1694.

Full bio: http://www.johannes-moser.com/johannes

Praised by The Strad magazine and The New York Times, internationally renowned cellist Amit Peled is acclaimed as one of the most exciting and virtuosic instrumentalists on the concert stage today. Having performed in many of the world’s most prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Salle Gaveau in Paris, Wigmore Hall in London, and the Konzerthaus Berlin, Peled has over a dozen recordings on the Naxos, Centaur, Delos, and CTM Classics labels. A professor since 2003 at the Peabody Institute at John Hopkins University, he has performed and taught at many festivals, including Marlboro, Newport, Heifetz, Schleswig-Holstein, Prussia Cove, and Keshet Eilon.

Full bio: http://www.amitpeled.com/biography

French cellist Jean Guihen Queyras focuses on curiosity and diversity in every performance. He has performed with orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, and the London Symphony Orchestra. He is a founding member of the Arcanto Quartet and is a professor at the University of Music Freiburg. Mr. Queyras plays a 1696 Gioffredo Cappa cello.

Full bio: https://jeanguihenqueyras.com/en/biographie/

Northwest Indiana Symphony cellist Molly Rife is a member of the Cloud Gate String Quartet and is on faculty at the Merit School of Music. She also enjoys playing with hip-hop bands, folk singers, and even DJs. She has performed for Electric Forest, Summerfest, Sofar Sounds Chicago, The Dojo, Dunn Dunn Fest, the Logan Square Arts Festival, and the Wabash Arts Crawl.

Full bio: http://www.mollyrife.com/about

Keith Robinson is a founding member of the Miami String Quartet and is an artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. The Miami String Quartet has won, among others, the Cleveland Quartet Award and Grand Prize at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, among others. Since graduating from the Curtis Institute, he has soloed with orchestras including the New World Symphony, the American Sinfonietta, and the Miami Chamber Symphony. He plays on a 1725 Carlo Tononi cello.

Full bio: https://www.chambermusicsociety.org/about/artists/strings/keith-robinson

“Israeli-American cellist Inbal Segev has soloed with leading international orchestras as the Berlin Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, and Pittsburgh Symphony. She co-founded the Amerigo Trio and started a YouTube series called Musings with Inbal Segev that has garnered thousands of subscribers. Her recent project “20 for 2020” features new works for cello in combinations with other instruments from 20 of today’s leading composers. Ms. Segev performs on a 1673 Francesco Ruggieri cello.

Full bio: https://inbalsegev.com/about/

Chicago Symphony Orchestra cellist Brant Taylor has performed with musicians throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. He is on faculty at the Depaul School of Music and is Consulting Artistic Director of Rush Hour Concerts, an organization committed to free public access to high-quality music. Mr. Taylor had a seven-year association with the band Pink Martini, which played on shows such as Late Night with Conan O’Brien and The Late Show with David Letterman.

Full bio: https://cso.org/about/performers/chicago-symphony-orchestra/cello/brant-taylor/

Wendy Warner won the international Rostropovich Cello Competition at the age of 18 and has since gone on to solo with orchestras across Europe and Asia. In 2009, she premiered a newly discovered Beethoven Trio. She is currently a professor at the Schwob School of Music and is also a recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Professor Warner plays a 1772 Joseph Gagliano cello

Full bio: http://www.wendywarnercello.com/bio