Cellist Katherine Cherbas
has performed solo and chamber music recitals throughout
the U.S. and has received particular acclaim for her
performances of new music. Ms. Cherbas, whose sound has
been described as “fresh and full” (Strings),
has performed at all of New York’s major halls and
has been heard on WNYC and BBC3 radio and the NBC, PBS,
and Bravo television networks.
In addition to the standard cello repertoire, Ms. Cherbas
enjoys playing contemporary music. She has worked with
numerous living composers and been involved in
performances of dozens of world premieres. In a recital
of recently-written string quartets performed at New
York's Museum of Modern Art, Ms. Cherbas "played
with expertise, energy and consistent polish" (New
York Times). An entirely different performance interest
is Baroque music: Ms. Cherbas is an accomplished continuo
player and in 1997 helped to form the Neue Bach Band, an
eleven-member ensemble devoted to the performance of
vocal and instrumental chamber music of J.S. Bach and his
contemporaries. With that group, she has performed
baroque chamber music at churches and universities across
the New York metropolitan area.
As the cellist of the Milton Quartet, Ms. Cherbas has
performed Milton Babbitt’s formidable String Quartet
No. 6 on series concerts at Bargemusic and Galapagos Bar,
at 85th birthday celebrations for the composer at The
Juilliard School and New York’s Century Club, and in
recital at Juilliard, SUNY-Stony Brook, and the Focus!
New Music Festival. The ensemble’s world premiere
recording of the work, recently released by Tzadik
records, was critically acclaimed for its display of
“staggering…technical control, understanding,
depth, passion, and brilliance of…playing”
(Tempo) and “impeccable tuning, timing and precision
of color and phrasing” (New York Times).
As an orchestral musician, Ms. Cherbas has performed with
the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the New European
Strings, and the New Jersey, Westchester, Riverside, and
Princeton Symphonies; she has served as principal cellist
of a number of ensembles, including the Prometheus
Chamber Orchestra, the School of American Ballet
Orchestra, and the Juilliard Orchestra. Among the
conductors with whom she has collaborated are Andre
Previn, Kurt Masur, Seiji Ozawa, Robert Spano, Bernard
Haitink, and Lorin Maazel. She also frequently can be
heard in the ensemble for such Broadway shows as Wicked
and Phantom of the Opera.
Ms. Cherbas studied at the Indiana University School of
Music with Helga Winold and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi; she
received a B.A. from Columbia University and the Master
of Music degree from The Juilliard School, where she was
a fellowship recipient and a student of Joel Krosnick. In
2001, she received the President's Award for
Distinguished Graduate Students, given to five graduating
doctoral students each year at SUNY-Stony Brook, where
she studied with Timothy Eddy and earned the Doctor of
Musical Arts degree. In addition to her activities as a
performer, Ms. Cherbas has served on the administrative
staff of the InterSchool Orchestras of New York, a
nonprofit organization that provides after-school youth
orchestras and other musical opportunities to children
from New York-area schools, and is a teaching artist in
New York City public schools through the Brooklyn
Philharmonic’s School Residency Initiative and the
Little Orchestra Society’s School Partnerships
Program. |
