Laura Metcalf > Cello
Cellist Laura Metcalf, lauded for her “sensitive, melodic touch” (BlogCritics Magazine) enjoys an active career as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral musician, and teacher. She is the cellist of acclaimed string quintet Sybarite5 who won the 2011 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition, and has performed sold-out concerts at the Library of Congress, Lincoln Center and many other venues worldwide. Sybarite5 made its Carnegie Hall debut at Zankel Hall in 2012, and their album “Disturb the Silence” recently reached the Top Ten on the Billboard Charts. Laura also performs regularly as a solo recitalist, most recently as a guest artist of the inaugural season of the New England Chamber Music Festival. She was featured as a soloist with the One World Symphony playing an arrangement of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time for cello and orchestra and has also been a soloist with the Laredo Philharmonic, the Ensemble 212 Orchestra and the Orquesta Sinfonica Sinaloa.
In 2011 Laura was appointed to the cello-percussion quartet Break of Reality, with whom she has performed in venues in New York, New Jersey, Alaska, California, Minnesota, Louisiana, Georgia, Texas, Michigan , Wisconsin , Ohio and Missouri, most recently being presented by the Eastman School of Music at the Eastman Theatre in Rochester, NY. Their albums routinely sell in the tens of thousands worldwide, and they premiered an original concerto featuring the group as soloists with the Laredo Philharmonic in 2013. Laura was appointed to the conductorless string ensemble Salome Chamber Orchestra, with whom she appears in Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Laura performs regularly as a duo with renowned classical guitarist Rupert Boyd, with whom she toured Australia in 2013, performing recitals throughout the country. As a member of Ten O’Clock Classics, a four-piece collective of soloists committed to performance and outreach, she toured to 27 cities nationwide in 2010. She is also a member of the Tarab Cello Ensemble, a group of 8 cellists with whom she has performed in the U.S. and Mexico. She has appeared on the Festival Chamber Music series at Weill and Merkin Concert Halls, and with the Elysium Chamber Ensemble at the Tenri Institute, collaborating with members of the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Currently she enjoys a regular collaboration with pianist David Oei and violinist Eriko Sato as the LED trio. With acclaimed cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton she performed at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC and in the French Institute:Alliance Francaise 2008 Fall Festival. She has also performed chamber music in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, the Chateau de Fontainebleau in France, the French Consulate of New York, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Bruno Walter Auditorium, and many other venues.
In 2009 Laura formed the Ansonia Trio, who won the Grand Prize in the 2009 Rutenberg Competition at the University of South Florida The trio was praised for its “tremendous musical range” and “consummate skill.” Prior to the Ansonia Trio she was a member of the Stella Piano Trio, who were the top-ranked North American Ensemble in the 2007 ARD Munich Competition and won the Artists International auditions.
Laura is a regular visitor to the IMS Prussia Cove in Cornwall, England, where she is routinely invited to take part in the Open Chamber Music Seminar. Other festival appearances include the Aspen, Taos and Sarasota Music Festivals, the London Masterclasses, and the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau (France). She has performed in masterclasses for Bernard Greenhouse, Ralph Kirshbaum, Colin Carr, Pamela Frank, Paul Katz, and many others.
Outside of the classical realm, Laura has appeared on the David Letterman Show, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, the Today Show and The View with such artists as John Legend, Donna Summer, Clay Aiken, Chromeo and Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics. She has performed numerous times at the South by Southwest Rock Festival and the US Open Tennis Tournament, has performed at and recorded music for New York Fashion Week, and performed with DJ Spooky , most recently at the 2011 international conference of The Economist magazine hosted by Alec Baldwin. She appeares regularlywith acclaimed Irish singer and composer Julie Feeney , both playing cello and singing backup vocals.
Laura received her Master of Music degree in May 2006 from the Mannes College of Music, where she studied with Timothy Eddy and was awarded the James E. Hughes award for excellence in performance. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Boston University’s College of Fine Arts, where, as recipient of the prestigious Trustee Scholarship, she won the 2003 Solo Bach Competition.
A devoted educator, Laura has given career-guidance presentations at the Eastman School of Music, the Hartt School of Music and Oklahoma State University. She served on the faculty of Opus 118 Harlem School of Music from 2006-2011, through which she also founded the first-ever cello program in New York’s Public School 129, and is currently a private cello teacher and chamber music coach for students of all ages as well as a faculty member of the New York Summer Music Festival.
