Guest Cellist Deborah Pae

Cellist Deborah Pae is captivating audiences on world stages as a seasoned recitalist and chamber musician. Since her international debut in 2003 at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards honoring cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and her European recital debut in 2005 on the Musée de Louvre recital series in Paris, Ms. Pae has performed across four continents and appeared in recital at the invitation of the Colony Club, Young Musicians Forum, Neue Galerie, Musée de Grenoble, Artists Ascending Recital Series, and the Van Wezel Foundation’s Young Artists Series. She has performed extensively at a number of highly regarded festivals including the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute (Chicago), the 7th Adam International Cello Festival in New Zealand, the International Musicians Seminar (IMS) and Open Chamber Music (OCM) at Prussia Cove (UK), the Perlman Music Program (NY), and Kneisel Hall (ME), and has participated in master classes by Alfred Brendel, Wolfgang Emmanuel Schmidt, and Ralph Kirshbaum.

In March 2006, Ms. Pae became the first cellist in 16 years to receive the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s first prize Henry Lewis Award in their 30th Annual Young Artist Auditions. She made her solo debut with the NJSO in a series of concerts at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and Red Bank Theatre, and since then, has also performed as soloist with the Livingston Symphony Orchestra and Westchester Philharmonic.

As an avid chamber musician, Ms. Pae has been described by the New York Times as “an alert cellist…a solid foundation” after performing Mozart’s String Quintet in G minor with violinist Itzhak Perlman at the Metropolitan Museum. As alumna of the Perlman Music Program, she collaborates on many occasions with Mr. Perlman including performances of Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence and Mozart’s Viola Quintet in D-Major at the MET Museum and McCarthur Theater Center at Princeton University, and multiple performances of Mendelssohn’s Octet which was played at the opening night of the Kennedy Center’s Family Theater. Ms. Pae has also traveled with the program to Israel, China, Vermont, and Sarasota, Florida. She has appeared on PBS’s “Live From Lincoln Center” in 2003 and CBS’s Kennedy Center Honors with Mr. Perlman and Pinkas Zuckerman, and has been heard in broadcast on Radio France and Chicago’s WFMT 98.7 Music from Ravinia and Live from the Mayne Stage.

Ms. Pae has enjoyed collaborating and performing with a multitude of artists including Pamela Frank, Miriam Fried, Paul Biss, Donald Weilerstein, Kim Kashkashian, Roger Tapping, Marcy Rosen, Eugenia Zukerman, Peggy Pearson, and Hamish Milne. During the 2009-10 season, she appeared at Chamber Music Live at Le Frak Auditorium at Queens College, the Schneider Concert Series at the New School, the Rhinebeck Chamber Music Series, the National Arts Club, the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music, and Kean University’s Ars Vitalis Concert Series.

Ms. Pae has been a young artist fellow for two summers (2010, 2011) at the Steans Music Institute at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago where she has performed extensively at Bennett-Gordon Hall including Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 130 and Grosse Fuga with artistic director and violinist Miriam Fried. She will be returning to Chicago as well as five other cities across the United States for the 2011-12 Musicians from Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute concert tour. Ms. Pae has also been guest artist on the “Music for Food” concert series in Boston for two seasons, a project created by renowned violist Kim Kashkashian which raises awareness about hunger faced by a large percent of our population, and gives young musicians the opportunity to experience the powerful role music can play as a catalyst for change. Highlights over the last year include concerts in Jordan Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Italian Embassy in Washington D.C., and Jazz at Lincoln Center in collaboration with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Perlman Music Program.

Ms. Pae began her musical studies at the age of four with Nellis Delay, sister of the late Dorothy Delay, and shortly thereafter, at the age of seven, was the youngest cellist accepted into the Pre-College Division of the Juilliard School under André Emelianoff. She completed her undergraduate studies at Juilliard in 2010 with Joel Krosnick and is currently pursuing a masters degree with Laurence Lesser at New England Conservatory with sponsorship from the Gregor Piatigorsky and Virginia Donlon Scholarships. Combining her love for chamber music and deep commitment to music education and outreach, Ms. Pae has spent her time as a chamber music and orchestral mentor at the Juilliard Pre-College Division, New England Conservatory Prep School, Kneisel Hall, and Perlman Music Program. She is also the artistic curator of the Music for Food Lunchtime Series at Women’s Lunch Place in Boston which was launched this October 2011. Ms. Pae plays on a Vuillaume cello ca. 1860 generously on loan to her from the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute.