Cello

Luis Biava is Principal Cello of Columbus Symphony Orchestra (CSO), artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Dublin (CMSD), conductor of Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra and Camarata and Music Director of the New Albany Symphony. His family represents four generations of musicians. His first cello studies were with his uncle Miguel Uribe in his native Colombia, and he performs regularly in the Trio Biava-Uribe with his aunt (Blanca Uribe, piano) and his father (Luis Biava, violin). He attended the University of Michigan, where he received a bachelor’s degree in Cello Performance. He also holds bachelor’s and master’s degree from the Juilliard School where he studied with Leonard Rose and Channing Robbins. He has also studied with Gabo Rejto, Samuel Mayes, Elsa Hilger, and Oliver Edel. He has performed solos with CSO; the symphonies of Savannah, U. of Michigan, Temple U., Bogotá, and Westerville; Upper Arlington Community Orchestra; Filamonica de Bogotá; and Antioquia Symphony of Medellin. He has performed as recitalist on the east coast, Puerto Rico and Colombia, South America as well as many chamber music concerts with CMSD and Camarata, the High Street Four String Quartet and the Canaletto Ensemble. His recordings include the Fauré Elegy with CSO, works of Antonio Maria Valencia with the Biava-Uribe Trio and as principal cello of the Spoleto Festival orchestra the Grammy nominated opera by Samuel Barber, Antony and Cleopatra. Mr. Biava is currently an adjunct professor at Kenyon College and on the faculty of FOSJA in San Juan Puerto Rico. In March 2011 he performed the Beethoven Triple Concerto with his wife Ariane Sletner and Blanca Uribe under the direction of his father Luis Biava with the New Albany Symphony. In January of 2012, Mr. Biava performed Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with the Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestra. Later that he was soloist in the Vivaldi Concerto for Two Cellos and the JC Bach Sinfonia Concertante with the Columbus Symphony this past year. He will be performing the Dvorak Concerto with the Newark-Granville Symphony in March of 2013 as well as the Vivaldi Two Cello with David Finckel with the New Albany Symphony for their final concert this season. He recently received the Empleos and Employment Ohio Diversity award for Latinos making a difference. In conducting this year, Mr. Biava conducted Hilary Hahn in the Korngold Violin Concerto and was cover conductor for the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Tchaikovsky Spectacular concert in Saratoga Springs.

Cellist Wendy Morton is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, PA, where she studied with Orlando Cole. She also studied with Laurence Lesser at the New England Conservatory. Other mentors include Karen Tuttle, Felix Galimir, Joseph Gingold, Mischa Schneider, and Isador Cohen.

Wendy has been the Assistant Principal Cellist of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra since 1996. She is also a member of UCelli: The Columbus Cello Quartet (UCelli.org). This group of four cellists frequently performs in and around Columbus and holds an annual cello camp. Wendy always has been active in teaching and performing chamber music and was one of the founding members of the Carpe Diem String Quartet. Wendy and the quartet have three recordings on the Naxos Records label, and in 2008, the quartet had the honor of performing a movement of the Schubert Cello Quintet as an encore with Yo-Yo Ma at the Ohio Theatre in Columbus.

Wendy also has performed with the Pushkin Ensemble and Quattro Corde and was a member of the Duvall Trio. She has performed in a chamber music setting with such notable musicians as Nobuko Imai, Julius Levine, Ann Schein, Gerard Poulet, and Mieczyslaw Horszowski. She previously performed with the Telluride Chamber Players and was featured at the Bay Chamber Concerts in Rockport, ME. Ms. Morton has been on faculty of numerous music festivals, including the Marble Cliff Chamber Players based in Columbus, OH and the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, NC for seven summers.

Wendy has performed with the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, Honolulu Symphony, Pennsylvania Ballet, and opera orchestras and the symphony orchestra of the Curtis Institute of Music. She also has performed with the Inverness Festival Orchestra and has toured the east coast with Alexander Schneider, including performances in Boston’s Symphony Hall and Avery Fisher Hall in New York.

In Columbus, she has held faculty positions at Capital University and Ohio Wesleyan University. Wendy is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, where she studied with the matriarch of cello pedagogy, Margaret Rowell. Wendy plays on a JB Gabrielli cello circa 1764.

Pei-An Chao has been a full-time member of the Columbus Symphony (CSO) since 2000. She was appointed Assistant Principal Cello for the 2009-2010 season and was featured as a soloist in 2011. Since 2008, she has led the cello section as principal on several occasions. Prior to joining the CSO, Ms. Chao spent two years with the New World Symphony, a training orchestra in Miami, FL designed to help young musicians pursue orchestral careers. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City and a master’s degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she was the concerto competition winner and graduated with distinction. Her major teachers were Marion Feldman and Bonnie Hampton.

Ms. Chao spent her childhood in Taipei, Taiwan and later moved to New York City. She began playing piano at age 4 and cello at age 9. Equally talented on both instruments throughout her musical training, she gained a broadened perspective of musical understanding beyond the limitations of each instrument.

Ms. Chao has appeared in prestigious festivals such as Tanglewood, Kent Blossom, Sarasota, Pacific, Spoleto, and Colorado. In addition to her CSO commitments, Ms. Chao is an active chamber musician and a dedicated teacher. She is a member of UCelli: The Columbus Cello Quartet and Cygnus String Quartet, and she can be seen in performance with her groups locally throughout the year. Her passion for new music started early in life, and she performs regularly with the Columbus Ohio Discovery Ensemble [CODE].

As a coach, Ms. Chao has worked with students of the Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestra (CSYO) and the Youth Philharmonic of Central Ohio as well as with local chamber music groups. She previously was a mentor for the New Albany Symphony. Each summer, she and her colleagues of UCelli host a popular week-long cello camp. Aside from keeping a busy private teaching studio, she has held teaching positions at Otterbein University, Ohio Wesleyan University, and Ohio University. Ms. Chao resides in Upper Arlington with her husband and two children.

William Victor Firlie, cellist, joined the CSO in 1986. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of New Mexico & San Francisco State University under the tutelage of Joanna De Keyser and Laszlo Varga. His graduate studies included Yale School of Music under Aldo Parisot. Victor has had the opportunity to perform concertos with the New Mexico Symphony, Promusica ensemble of Santa Fe, Roswell Symphony, Los Alamos Philharmonic and others. His orchestral background also includes Sacramento Symphony, San Jose Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Oklahoma Symphony, and the Orchestra De Mineria Mexico City. He has had extensive chamber music opportunities including Yale Summer School of Music and Art, June Music Festival, and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. He enjoys playing quartets with his two children Dylan & Alena, both talented violinists.

Venezuelan cellist Luis Parra was appointed Cello Section of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra in the spring 2024. Parra is an emerging artist in chamber music, orchestra and solo performance, whose musical journey initiated in the Venezuelan world-renowned music program “El Sistema”, He has collaborated with prestigious artists and orchestras in Venezuela, the United States and abroad.

As an orchestra musician and soloist, Parra served as Principal Cellist of the Yaracuy Symphony Orchestra, having the opportunity to tour Colombia in 2012, visiting 7 cities of Venezuela’s  neighboring country. Parra has also collaborated with the Caracas Municipal Symphony Orchestra and the Teresa Carreño Symphony Orchestra in Venezuela. Parra  also served as Acting Principal Cellist of the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra in South Carolina in their 2021/22 season, Guest Principal for the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra in 2023 and Acting Section Cello for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in the fall of 2023. Parra made his solo debut with the Yaracuy Symphony Orchestra in 2014, and his international debut with the Beirut Philharmonic in Lebanon in 2015.

As an accomplished chamber musician, Parra has collaborated with renowned string quartets and chamber musicians such as the Kronos Quartet, the Cavani String Quartet, Lawrence Dutton from the Emerson String Quartet, Ed Gazouleas, Ayane Kozasa, among others. Parra has also participated in many festivals worldwide, including the Nuevo Mundo Festival and Academy in Aruba; the Yawmiyat Festival in Ghalboun, Lebanon; in the USA: Center Stage Strings; the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, and most recently the Artosphere Music Festival and the Tanglewood Music Center in the summers of 2022 and 2023.

In 2017, Parra moved to the United States to study at the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University with cellists and pedagogues Richard Aaron, Julie Albers, and Leo Singer, completing his Bachelor’s in Music in 2021. In 2023, Luis Parra completed his Master’s in Music being a student of Alan Rafferty at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music performance, serving as a Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra/CCM Diversity Fellow.

Ha Eun Song, born in Korea, began her journey with the cello at the age of 13. She earned her Master of Music degrees from Rice University and Yale University, where she received multiple scholarships, including the Norman and Jeanne Kierman Fischer Prize and the Edmund Saranec Scholarship. She completed her Bachelor of Music at Ewha Womans University.

Her cello studies have been guided by renowned mentors including Desmond Hoebig, Paul Watkins, Il-Hwan Bae, and Hyong-Won Chang, with additional lessons and masterclasses with esteemed artists such as Ralph Kirshbaum, Alan Stepansky, Troles Svane, and Gary Hoffman.

Throughout her career, Song received various awards, including the Art/Sports Vision Scholarship from the Korea Student Aid Foundation and multiple prizes in national competitions. She also was a winner of the Keston MAX London Symphony Orchestra fellow audition in Music Academy of the West which led her to perform in high-profile venues such as the Barbican Centre in London.

As an orchestra musician, Song performed in many concerts as a principal cellist and she had a previlege to perform under the baton of renowned conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Marin Alsop, and Gianandrea Noseda. She also performed with New World Symphony, Houston Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony as a substitute musician.

As a passionate chamber musician, Song has worked with renowned string quartets and chamber musicians such as the Brentano Quartet, Paul Kantor, Brian Connelly, David Geber and more. She has also participated in many festivals worldwide including Eumyoun International Music Festival, Atlantic Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, and Aspen Music Festival where she received the New Horizons Fellowship.