I have been teaching cello lessons, both privately and in schools, since 2003. I have taught students of all levels, ages 4-80. I have an education from various aspects of music, with a BA in musicology from Yale, a MM in cello performance from the Mannes College of Music, and cello performance studies at the SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music. I maintain an active performing schedule in the New York area, where I play with a trio, a string quartet, and various other ensembles. I have been on the teaching faculties of the Mannes College of Music, the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, Creative Music and Art (Monroe, CT), and the Amadeus Conservatory of Music (Chappaqua).  

Luke is a cellist based in the New York area. As an orchestral musician Luke has toured extensively including China and Scandinavia and was a regular member of the Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra.  Until June 2011, Luke lived and performed in Austin, Texas playing popular and folk music and touring the southern part of the United States. He has a B.A. in music performance from Stony Brook University, studying under renowned soloist Colin Carr and the Emerson String Quartet. He is currently enrolled in the M.S.Ed degree in Music Education at Queens College.

Mike started playing and became obsessed with the cello at age 16. He would fuse this new-found obsession with the passion he had developed years earlier for heavy metal music. This has defined the unorthodox style he's developed. His music fuses his classical training with his love of heavy metal, fantasy, film & folk music. Building layers of cello on top of each other, he creates a world simultaneously dark, beautiful, wonderful, fantastic & breathtaking.

Bach was a household icon for my family during my childhood. Every March we hosted Bach Birthday Parties and I was raised with a love of music.  Although I’d studied piano since age five, at times without much enthusiasm, everything changed when I reached age eleven and “met” my first cello. From the start, I knew I’d found my “medium” in life.  The cello was for me! Throughout middle and high school, I played a great deal of chamber music and participated in school and borough-wide orchestras. At Bennington College I majored in music and joined the Vermont State Symphony!  I was playing cello every chance I could. Following my college graduation, I spent the year in Paris, studying cello and composition. Upon my return to NYC I launched my own self-styled performing and teaching career.  I earned my Master of Arts Degree in Cello Performance at Brooklyn College. All the while, I was performing in various groups such as a 5 woman chamber ensemble called Mother Chord, and, as mentioned above, with the mandolin-English Concertina-cello trio called Calle Strada Strasse and with the musician that took me furthest around the world-Suni Paz, an Argentine singer/songwriter with whom I played from 1976 to 1997, touring Germany, Mexico, and throughout the U.S.  What a gratifying experience that has been!  Despite Suni’s move to California, we still perform together every year.

I grew up with music all around me. Both of my parents play classical instruments like the cello and violin. My childhood home was filled with sounds of classical and chamber music. Therefore, it is not so surprising that I too chose to move in the direction of music. I went to Bard College with no clear intent on what to do, but I continued to play in orchestras and chamber music groups, and knew that no matter which degree I chose, that I would always love playing the cello.