MEET THE MUSICIANS

VIOLONCELLO ADELLE-AKIKO KEARNS

Cellist Adelle-Akiko Kearns was born in San Francisco and began studying the cello at the age of 11 in the preparatory division of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She later continued her musical education in the collegiate division of the same institution, earning

a bachelor's degree in cello performance and her masters' degree in chamber music, both with honors in chamber music, under the instruction of Bonnie Hampton and Sadao Harada.

Adelle went on to pursue a graduate diploma from the Juilliard School where she is currently studying with Joel Krosnick and Bonnie Hampton. She has participated in masterclasses with Mstislav Rostropovich, Raphael Wallfisch, the Tokyo String Quartet, Bernard Greenhouse, and many other eminent musicians. Adelle has appeared as a soloist with the

Tokyo Philharmonic, the West Valley Symphony, SFCM Orchestra, Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra and Pacific Chamber Symphony, and won awards at many competitions in the USA and Japan. As a chamber musician, she has collaborated with artists such as Robert Mann, Jorja Fleezanis, Ian Swensen, Axel Strauss and the Da Capo Players. Adelle has an avid interest in new music and has performed in the Suntory Hall Music 21 Festival, with the New Juilliard Ensemble, the New Music Works' Lou Harrison Festival, the BluePrint Festival, the SFCM New Music Ensemble.

She was assistant principal of the Tokyo Symphony from 2005-2007. Prior to that she was the assistant principal cellist of the Monterey and Stockton Symphonies. She has performed as principal cellist for the Tanglewood and Spoleto Festivals and the SF Lyric Opera and Bay Shore Lyric Opera Orchestras, and has been invited to festivals including Saito Kinen, Yellow Barn, Tanglewood, Spoleto, Aspen and the World Cello Congress International Masterclass Seminar. Last fall Adelle made her New York recital debut in Weill Recital Hall

at Carnegie Hall.