The Cello Guild

Praised for her “impressively passionate performances” (The Strad) and “ceaseless musicianship” (BBC Music Magazine), cellist Jennifer Kloetzel has performed as soloist and chamber musician at Lincoln Center, the Ravinia Festival and San Francisco Performances. Her international credits include Harpa Concert Hall (Reykjavik), Izumi Hall (Osaka) and the Eroica-Saal (Vienna). Jennifer’s engaging programs offer audiences a surprising mix of repertoire by Shostakovich, Mel Bonis, Frank Bridge, John Williams, and Philippe Hersant. She has premiered over 80 solo and chamber works, including 5 concerti written specifically for her. Fascinated with performance projects that create community, Jennifer’s ongoing Mission: Bach—The Road to Inspiration tour includes concerts at all 21 California Missions, performing the Bach Cello Suites and commissioned companion pieces. These concerts with conversation explore local history and musical connections across centuries. Her Inspired By America project brought a multi-media collaboration to large concert halls, exploring what it means to be an American through live chamber music combined with film. Jennifer’s “Beethoven: The Conquering Hero,” (the complete works for cello and piano with Robert Koenig), was chosen as “Recording of the Month” by BBC Music Magazine in March 2022. Other highlights include recording Elena Ruehr’s Cello Concerto “Cloud Atlas” with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, as well as the entire cycle of Beethoven Quartets and Brahms Sextets. Jennifer has been featured regularly in both concerto and chamber performances on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today.” Among her 36 CDs, many have been broadcast on radio stations in South Africa, Romania, Brazil, Germany and Australia. A Fulbright scholar, Jennifer holds two degrees from The Juilliard School, winning the institution’s top award at graduation. A founding member of the Cypress String Quartet, she now performs with QuartetES and Bow & Mallet, a jazz quintet. Jennifer serves as Professor and Head of the String and Performance Areas at the University of California Santa Barbara and she regularly offers master classes and workshops along with her mainstage performances.

Guest curator and researcher Erica Lessie is a freelance cellist in the Chicago area, working in a broad range of styles across many facets of the Chicago music scene. Erica has performed on the Oprah Winfrey show with both Whitney Houston and Seal, and has also appeared with Diana Krall, Andrea Bocelli, Peter Cetera, the Four Tops, and Johnny Mathis. She is an auxiliary member of the rock band Tributosaurus and co-founder of Cherchez la Femme, a musical ensemble dedicated to presenting the arts expressed by women across the millennia. Ms. Lessie also developed Cellos of Unusual Shape, a solo presentation that explores the diversity of variant cellos. Currently, she teaches at DePaul University Community Music Division, King Music, and Waubonsie Valley High School while maintaining a private studio. She has composed duets for flute/cello and piccolo/toy piano and is creating a collection of short pieces for solo cello. Ms. Lessie received a B.M. from Indiana University, where she studied cello with Fritz Magg and chamber music with Rostislav Dubinsky and James Buswell. At Florida State University she earned an M.M. and completed coursework for a D.M.A. She currently resides south of Chicago.

Cello Museum founder and curator, Dr. Brenda Neece, DPhil (Oxon.), is a cellist and a researcher specializing in the history of the cello. Before starting the Cello Museum in the autumn of 2019, she worked as a freelance cellist and photographer and served for just over a decade as the first curator of the musical instrument collections at Duke University. In addition to playing the cello, doing cello research, and writing about cellos, she enjoys experimenting with variant cellos. In addition to her modern instrument, she also plays a 5-string baroque cello, a small 5-string cello, a folding prakticello, and an electric cello on a tripod. Dr. Neece has loved Bethany Beach since her first visit in 1978 and spends as much time there as possible. She currently lives in Durham, NC, with her husband and cats. When not playing or writing about the cello, she enjoys photography and martial arts.