Cellist Allison Eldredge, a recipient of the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant and Musical America’s “Young Artist of the Year”, has enjoyed performing nationally and internationally, from London to Moscow to China to Berlin. She has been called “a cellist afraid of nothing” (Chicago Times) with “virtuosity wholly at the service of the music” (American Fanfare – American Record Guide). She gained international attention when Daniel Barenboim invited her to give the first performance of the Elgar Cello Concerto, which he conducted years after the death of his wife, the celebrated cellist Jacqueline Du Pre.
Ms. Eldredge has appeared as cello soloist with 30 major American orchestras and innumerable major international orchestras. She has been invited by the premiere Music Directors of the world from Scotland to Italy to Canada to the Netherlands and the United States receiving critical acclaim such that “She belongs to “the crème de la crème” of cello talents” (Het Noord Hollands Dagblad Amsterdam). In recital, she has toured the world to Tokyo, London, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Berlin, Paris, Osaka, Washington D.C.,Chicago and many other cities.
Following her performances in Israel, the Jerusalem Post described Ms. Eldredge’s playing as having “rare musical sensitivity and a perfect technique.” – Jerusalem Post. Allison Eldredge has been thrilled to tour and perform with the world’s leading orchestras such as the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields and the Royal Philharmonic in London, the Moscow Virtuosi, Berlin Symphoniker, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Royal Flanders Philharmonic, Warsaw and Krakow Philharmonic, Sinfonia Varsovia, National State Orchestra of Mexico, Osaka, New Osaka and Tokyo Philharmonic, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, China National Symphony, Montreal, Budapest, Tokyo Metropolitan, Netherlands, Utrecht, Ukraine National State, Haifa, Cyprus, Uruguay, Puerto Rico and Polish Radio Symphonies.
She has been a Guest Artist at Music Festivals internationally in Switzerland, Puerto Rico, France, Great Britain, Russia, Belgium, the Netherlands, South Korea, Japan and across the United States. She has appeared frequently on the radio and television internationally, including on major networks such as WQXR, WGBH, NPR, WABC Television and Fuji TV. Her Solo Albums have been released by BMG, Pony Canyon Classics, Denon Records, Arizona University Records and Denon Essentials. Her recordings and performances can be found on Itunes, Amazon Music, Spotify and on her YouTube channel: Allison Eldredge
Exceptional distinctions include a critically-acclaimed sold-out debut as soloist at Carnegie Hall with the Warsaw Sinfonia and legendary Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki at the baton, a command performance at the White House and special performances in tribute of cellist Pablo Casals at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico.
This season, Ms. Eldredge was thrilled to give the world premiere of Donald Fraser’s Elegy for Cello, Soprano and Orchestra with Cynthia Woods and the Cambridge Symphony. She was honored to give the Massachusetts premiere of “Stolen” for solo cello by Allison Loggins-Hull at New England Conservatory on Max Levinson’s Connections Series. In 2019, Ms. Eldredge performed Tales of Hemingway, a concerto for cello and orchestra composed in 2015 by American composer Michael Daugherty, with the Portland-Columbia Symphony, the Arkansas Philharmonic and the North Mississippi Symphony Orchestra.
A champion of living composers, Ms. Eldredge was deeply honored to tour North America, Europe and Israel with the late composer Krzysztof Penderecki performing his Viola Concerto transcribed for cello and orchestra. In 2013, she performed his Concerto Grosso No. 1 for Three Cellos as first cellist with the composer at the podium in Poland. She performed Leonard Bernstein’s 3 Meditations from Mass with Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony. Ms. Eldredge, also, performed in an acclaimed concert celebrating Paul Schoenfield’s works with the composer present in 2008. Ms. Eldredge has personally collaborated with composers Leon Kirchner, Shigeaki Saegusa, Lukas Foss, Marc O’ Connor, Andy Vores and performed the works of many other living composers including Joan Tower, Bright Sheng, George Crumb, Ellen Taaffe Zwillich and Allison Loggins-Hull.
Ms. Eldredge has shared the stage in chamber music with many of classical music’s most beloved Artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Andre Previn, Joshua Bell and Gil Shaham. She was a member of the Boston Trio from 2001-2011.
As a teacher, Ms. Eldredge has loved teaching the next generation for the past 30 years from beginners to competition winners. She has taught cellists at New England Conservatory since 2000 and at Harvard University from 2008-2011. Ms. Eldredge also maintains a private teaching studio in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Her students have been accepted at every major university and Ivy League school as well the top conservatories internationally and across the nation.
Ms. Eldredge has given masterclasses at universities and schools around the world and has visited more than 100 schools in support of music education in communities with greater needs. She teaches chamber music at Young Talent Chamber Music, a two-week Pro-Am intensive summer camp in Connecticut, where she has been Artistic Director since 2014. She is on Faculty at the Altschuler Summer Music Institute in Rimini, Italy this summer.
Her cello teachers have included Harvey Shapiro, Yo-Yo Ma, Eleonore Schoenfeld, Joan Lunde, Mstislav Rostropovich, Ardyth Alton and Channing Robbins. Ms. Eldredge studied at the Pre-College and College of The Juilliard School. She can be found on the web at: www.allisoneldredge.
