SAEUNN THORSTEINSDOTTIR, CELLO
SAM ARMSTRONG, PIANO

Praised by the New York Times as "a charismatic cellist", Saeunn Thorsteinsdottir has appeared as recitalist and chamber musician across the U.S., Germany, Poland, Italy, France and her native Iceland and has performed concerti with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra,  the Silesian Philharmonic (Poland) and the Des Moines Symphony, among others. She has garnered numerous top prizes, including the Antonio Janigro International Cello Competition in Zagreb, Croatia and the 2008 Naumburg Competition in New York City.  Saeunn was recently chosen as the recipient of a Career Grant from the Rachel Elizabeth Barton Foundation and nominated for the “Brightest Hope” of the 2010 Icelandic Music Awards.

An avid chamber musician, Saeunn has collaborated in performance with Itzhak Perlman,Mitsuko Uchida, the Cavani Quartet, and members of the Guarneri Quartet in venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.  Currently, Saeunn is a member of Ensemble ACJW and a fellow of The Academy, a collaboration of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and The Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education, performing chamber music at Carnegie Hall and bringing classical music to students in the New York City Public Schools.

An advocate of new music, Saeunn has premiered dozens of works, including most recently, commissioned works for cello by Daníel Bjarnason and Nicholas Csicsko.  She performs new music frequently in venues in New York City such as The Stone and Le Poisson Rouge.  Along with the masterpieces of the 18th, 19th and 20th century, Saeunn is constantly inspired by works composed in our time.

A certified Suzuki teacher, Saeunn received her pedagogy training under Tanya Lesinsky Carey (former President of the Suzuki Association of the Americas), her longtime teacher and mentor. She has served as teaching assistant to Mrs. Carey at Meadowmount School of Music, Richard Aaron at ENCORE School for Strings, as well as having coached chamber music groups at the Chamber Music Connection, Columbus and CIM's Summer Chamber Music Program.  As a component of the work she does through The Academy, Saeunn works regularly at Elementary School P.S. 28 in Brooklyn.

In 2006, Saeunn received a Bachelor of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music with the highest honors for accomplishments in both cello and chamber music, the Ellis A. Feiman Memorial Award in Cello and the Bennett Levine Memorial Award in Chamber Music.   She continued her studies at The Juilliard School and completed a Master of Music in 2008. Her principle teachers included Richard Aaron, Tanya Carey and Joel Krosnick.

Saeunn has performed in master classes for Zara Nelsova, Anner Bylsma, Bernard Greenhouse and Steven Isserlis, and was a featured soloist on NPR’s ”From the Top” and PBS’s “Sunday Arts”.  She has been invited to summer festivals including the Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Workshop, Kneisel Hall, Villefavard Masterclasses in France, as well as the Sarasota and Marlboro Music Festivals.

Born in 1984 in Reykjavik, Iceland, Saeunn now lives in New York City.  She plays on a cello made in Milan, Italy circa 1800. $100/reception- Program:

Beethoven Sonata in A major op. 69; Poulenc Sonata; Janacek “Pohadka” (Fairytales);Jórunn Viðar “Variations” on an Icelandic Song;  R. Strauss Sonata in F major op. 6.

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