ABOUT THE ARTIST

Bay Area native Michelle Kwon holds B.A. and M.M. degrees in Violoncello Performance from Stanford University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and studied with Christopher Costanza and Jennifer Culp, respectively. Although trained as a classical musician, she is enthusiastic and pursues many different styles of music in hopes of blurring the defined lines of genre.

A passionate chamber musician, she is a founding member of the Delphi Trio. She has collaborated with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Menahem Pressler, and Edgar Meyer, and has worked with Joel Krosnick, Robert Mann, Russell Sherman, and the St. Lawrence, Alexander, and Julliard String Quartets. Her other chamber music endeavors have included collaborations with folk and jazz artists such as Carlos Santana, Kenny Endo and the Kenny Endo Taiko Ensemble, Tin Hat, and Quartet San Francisco. She has also performed as a Fellow at both the Tanglewood Music Festival and the Banff Centre for the Arts.

An equally enthusiastic orchestral player, she performed with the inaugural YouTube Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, and holds positions with the Oakland East Bay Symphony, Monterey Symphony, Fresno Philharmonic, and the San Jose Chamber Orchestra. She has worked with conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, James Levine, Kurt Masur, Herbert Blomstedt, and Michael Tilson Thomas, and recently recorded the Kreutzer Concerti with violinist Axel Strauss under the Naxos label.

She is also a member of the Magik*Magik Orchestra of San Francisco, and under artistic director Minna Choi, she has collaborated with rock and pop artists such as Death Cab for Cutie, Charlie Wilson, and John Vanderslice. Through the orchestra, she has recorded for two Grammy-nominated albums.

Her other interests include East Asian folk percussion and martial arts.