Ishay Shaer
Piano
Hailed as “sensational in concert” by the NY Times and as a “striking virtuoso” by the LA Times, cello virtuoso Kristina Reiko Cooper has won worldwide acclaim for her musical diversity, artistry, and charismatic stage presence. She has performed as a
soloist and chamber musician on many of the world’s most distinguished stages including Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall, The Kennedy Center, Suntory Hall of Tokyo, Radio France in Paris, and has made solo appearances with the PragueChamber Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony, the Shanghai Symphony and the Tokyo Yomiuri Symphony among others. Her many festival appearances include The Lincoln Center Summer Festival, Mostly Mozart, Musicians from Marlboro, Bang on a Can All-Stars, and the Stresa International Music Festival. Cooper has had many original works written and commissioned for her; among the composers that she has worked with are Phillip Glass, Tan Dun, Mario Davidovsky, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Josef Bardanashvili and Lera Auerbach.
As a chamber musician, Cooper received the Walter M. Naumburg Chamber Music Award first prize with her former string quartet, The Whitman Quartet. Her upcoming season includes solo performances in Carnegie Hall with the NY City Opera Orchestra, the Russian State Symphony Orchestra in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Concerto Budapest Orchestra in Hungary and the Mexico City Philharmonic.
As project creator and soloist for Sugihara Symphony, Kristina’s pursuit of the musical work is also the subject of a documentary currently in production with Mark Wahlberg’s company, Unrealistic Ideas.She has an extensive discography of CD and DVD recordings as both soloist and chamber musician. Cooper received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music and her doctorate of musical arts from The Juilliard School and is currently a visiting professor at Tel Aviv University. Kristina plays on the 1743 Ex-Havemeyer G.B. Guadagnini cello.