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Canadian cellist Soo Bae, was recently praised by The New Yorker as “superb” and by The Strad, for being “rich and romantic with crisp incisive technique” Recently honored in March 2009 as the musician of the month in Musical America Magazine, Ms. Bae is also a winner of the 2005 Concert Artists Guild International Competition. In 2006, the Canada Council of the Arts awarded her First Prize in its Instrument Bank Competition, resulting in a three-year loan of the ca. 1696 Bonjour Stradivari cello. Earlier that same year, she became the first Canadian ever awarded a prize at the Adam International Cello Festival & Competition in New Zealand.

Ms. Bae appears as guest soloist with the Oakville Symphony, Kingston Symphony and Orchestra London in Canada and with the University of Chicago Symphony in the US. Recent concerto engagements include the National Arts Center Orchestra of Canada, Christchurch Symphony in New Zealand, New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra, Scottsdale Symphony, Wartburg Symphony (IA), Ohio Valley Symphony, and Toronto’s Canadian Youth Symphony and Korean Canadian Symphony. She was also featured soloist with the Asian Youth Orchestra for its summer 2007 tour, performing Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations under the baton of Okku Kamu. Commencing at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall, this eight concert tour included performances in Shanghai, Beijing and Tokyo.

Since her debut with the Korean Canadian Symphony at age eleven, Ms. Bae has concertized in Asia, Europe, Canada and the US, including such prestigious venues as Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall and NY debut at Carnegie Hall. In addition, she was featured soloist for the closing ceremony of the Pablo Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, where she performed on Casals' own instrument. Featured 2008-09 recitals include Washington Performing Arts Society, Festival Place in Alberta, and Symphony Space’s Thalia Theatre as part of CAG’s New Works Series, as well as an appearance at Barbes Bar and Performance Space in Brooklyn. Recent touring highlights include recitals at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (Urbana, IL), Northeastern Illinois University’s “Jewel Box” Series and Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute (Utica, NY), the Telus Theatre in Alberta, Canada, the Asociación Nacional de Conciertos in Panama City and the CAG series at Long Island’s Patchogue Theatre.

Soo Bae recently recorded her CD for the Naxos label featuring all twelve solo caprices of cellist-composer Alfredo Piatti, which were compared to the Bach Cello Suites by the great Yehudi Menuhin and equivalent of the Paganini caprices for solo violin.

An avid chamber musician Ms. bae has played with members of the Guarneri and Juilliard string quartets among others and has toured with “Musicians from Marlboro” appearing in numerous chamber music festivals including Marlboro, Yellow Barn, Sarasota, Orford and Verbier. Thriving on innovative collaborations, Ms. Bae has also recently performed with jazz clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera and violinist/composer Mark O’Connor.

Born in Seoul, Korea, Soo Bae began her cello studies at the age of six and moved to Toronto two years later, where she enrolled at the Royal Conservatory of Music. She received her Bachelor of Music from The Curtis Institute of Music and her Master of Music degree and Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School where she served as assistant faculty under Joel Krosnick. Ms. Bae currently teaches at the Gordon College in Boston and runs and directs the Angelos Mission Ensemble Chamber music program in New Jersey of which she is founder and director.


Short Bio


Praised by The New Yorker as "superb," and for "rich and romantic with crisp incisive technique" by The Strad, cellist Soo Bae was recently honored in March 2009 as the musician of the month in Musical America Magazine, Ms. Bae is also a winner of the 2005 Concert Artists Guild International Competition. In 2006, the Canada Council of the Arts awarded her First Prize in its Instrument Bank Competition, resulting in a three-year loan of the ca. 1696 Bonjour Stradivari cello. Earlier that same year, she became the first Canadian ever awarded a prize at the Adam International Cello Festival & Competition in New Zealand.
Ms. Bae was a featured soloist with the Asian Youth Orchestra for its 2007 Asia Tour of Japan, Hong Kong,and China performing Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations under the baton of Okku Kamu. North American orchestral highlights include the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra, Scottsdale Symphony, Wartburg Symphony (IA), Ohio Valley Symphony, Toronto's Korean Canadian Youth Symphony, the National Arts Center Orchestra of Canada and the Christchurch Symphony in New Zealand. An avid chamber musician Ms. bae has played with members of the Guarneri and Juilliard string quartets among others and has toured with “Musicians from Marlboro” appearing in numerous chamber music festivals including Marlboro, Yellow Barn, Sarasota, Orford and Verbier. Born in Seoul, Korea, Soo Bae began her cello studies at the age of six and moved to Toronto two years later, where she enrolled at the Royal Conservatory of Music. She received her Bachelor of Music from The Curtis Institute of Music and her Master of Music degree and Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School where she served as assistant faculty under Joel Krosnick. Ms. Bae currently teaches at the Gordon College in Boston and runs and directs the Angelos Mission Ensemble Chamber music program in New Jersey of which she is founder and director.


Soo Bae, cello

Fact Sheet


Solo Performance Engagements

  • New Zealand Symphony, New Zealand
  • Pottstown Symphony, Pennsylvania
  • Lower Merian Symphony, Pennsylvania
  • National Youth Symphony, Puerto Rico
  • North York Symphony, Toronto, Canada
  • Korean Youth Orchestra, Toronto, Canada

Festivals

  • Marlboro Festival,Vermont
  • Verbier Festival, Switzerland
  • Yellow Barn Festival,Vermont
  • Encore School for Strings, Ohio
  • Orford Festival, Montreal
  • Meadowmount School, New York
  • Sarasota festival, Florida

Special Prizes & Performances

Canadian Council Instrument Bank Competition: 1st prize; 1696 Stradivarius Bonjour Cello 2006
5th Adam International Competition, New Zealand (3rd prize) 2006
Concert Artist Guild Winner (management prize) 2005-2008
Marlboro Tour (National, East Coast, West Coast) 2005, 2006, 2007
Irene Diamond Concert (with Joel Smirnoff and Bruce Brubaker), Alice Tully 2002
Isaac Stern’s 80th Birthday Concert, Carnegie Hall 2000
Closing Ceremony of Pablo Casals Festival, Puerto Rico (using Casal’s instrument from the Casal’s museum in San Jose) 1997


Collaboration & Coaches Includes

Louis Biava
Bruce Brubacker
Ronald Copes
Timothy Eddy
Felix Galimir
Jonathan Feldman
Margo Garrett
Christoph Henkel
Jamie Laredo
Ron Leonard
Lawrence Lesser
Wei Gong Li
Cho-Liang Lin
Seymour Lipkin
Curtis Macomber
Robert Mann
Mark O’Connor
Samuel Rhodes David Soyer
Joseph Silverstein
Joel Smirnoff
Arnold Steinhardt
Steve Tenenbom
Peter Wiley
Mitsuko Uchida


Chamber Music Ensembles

Walk 132 Jason Suh, guitar/piano 2005 – present
Edgeeffect Ensemble Mark O’Connor, violin, Soyeon Lee, piano 2005 – present
Musician from Marlboro Various Artist depending on the tour 2005 – present
Fideo Trio Bin Huang, violin, Hyun Sun Kim, piano 2005 – present
Classyfunk Duo Soyeon Lee, piano 2005 – present


Faculty Position

Juilliard School : Teaching Assistant to Joel Krosnick age 18 – 28 2005 – present
Geneva Conservatory of Music: Cello/Chamber Music Faculty age 9 - 15 2004-present
St Thomas Choir School: cello faculty age 10-16 2006- present
Angelos Mission Ensemble: Founder/Director and Chamber Music Coach age 12 - 20 2004-present
Private Cello Students: currently have 8 regular students age 8 - 30 1996-present
Yellow Barn Intensive Chamber Music Festival: Chamber Music Coach age 13 - 19 2002


Orchestral Experience

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra Active Sub 2005 – present
The Juilliard Symphony principal 2001-2003
The Curtis Symphony Orchestra principal 2000-2001
Haddonfield Symphony Orchestra principal 1997-2001
New York String Seminar in Carnegie principal 1997-1998
Temple University Orchestra co-principal 1996-1997
National Youth Symphony principal 1996-1997
Canadian Youth Symphony principal 1991-1994


Conductors

James Levine
Sir Neville Marriner
Kurt Masur
Otto Werner Mueller
Antonio Pappano
Krzysztof Penderecki
Andre Previn
Sir Simon Rattle
Milanov Rossen
Mstislav Rostropovich
Wolfgang Sawallish
Stanislaw Skrowaczewski
Yuri Temirkanov


Scholarships, Honors and Awards

Leonard Rose Scholarship 2003, 2004
Genevieve Kniese Chaudhuri Cello Award 2003,2004
Stonzek Memorial Scholarship 2003,2004
Juilliard Alumni Scholarship 2003,2004
Elain Lamber Yearly Prize 2002, 2003
Korean Canadian Embassy Award 2002
Bok Foundation Scholarship 1997- 2001


Education

The Juilliard School Artist Diploma 2003-2005
The Juilliard School Master of Music 2001-2003
The Curtis Institute of Music Bachelor of Music 1997-2001
Temple University Prep Division 1996-1997
Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto Diploma 1990-1994


Teachers

Joel Krosnick
Harvey Shapiro
Orlando Cole
William Stokking
David Hetherington
Gregory Goldberg