Cello at Penn State

Cello Studies

Welcome to the cello studio at Penn State! The string program has enrolled excellent students from all over the United States, as well as from Argentina, Brazil, Ukraine, Germany, Bulgaria, Israel, Jordan, Taiwan, China, Colombia, and Brazil. The cello studio is vibrant, with weekly performance classes and guest masterclasses.

Cello students have won the Penn State Concerto Competition resulting in performances of concertos by Dvorak, Elgar, Saint-Saens, and Shostakovich, Variations on a Rococo Theme by Tchaikovsky, and Schelomo by Bloch with the Penn State Philharmonic Orchestra. We have hosted cello masterclasses with Anner Bylsma, Paul Katz, Colin Carr, Alan Harris, Aldo Parisot, Ralph Kirshbaum, Desmond Hoebig, Alisa Weilerstein, and David Finckel, as well as chamber music classes with members of the Tokyo Quartet, Kronos Quartet, Emerson Quartet, and Pinchas Zuckerman. Our cello choir has 26-30 members.

Graduates of the cello studio have been offered assistantships from many prestigious institutions, and former students are currently employed as performers and teachers in Croatia, Sweden, Germany, Taiwan, Brazil, and the United States.

For more information please contact Professor Cook at kdc3@psu.edu.