Alan Stepansky

Alan Stepansky is recognized as one of the most gifted and versatile cellists of his generation. After a distinguished orchestral career playing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, serving as Principal Cellist of the Boston Pops, and culminating in a ten-year tenure as Associate Principal Cellist of the New York Philharmonic, he is in demand as a soloist, chamber musician, principal cellist, and recording artist. He is currently Professor of Cello at Manhattan School of Music and the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, and is the newly appointed Director of Chamber Music at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts. A guest at many summer festivals, he returns each year as faculty artist of the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. He has performed as a guest artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and Jazz at Lincoln Center, and has appeared in concert with a diverse array of artists, including the Takacs and American String Quartets.

He has recorded a series of chamber music and solo discs for EMI, which were honored by Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, the New York Times, and the British Music Industry Association, and has been engaged as the solo cellist for major film soundtracks, including Adaptation, Being John Malkovich, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Moonrise Kingdom, A Serious Man, Titanic, and True Grit. He has also appeared on the albums of many noted recording artists across many genres, including Bruce Springsteen, Natalie Merchant, David Byrne, Audra McDonald, Joss Stone, and Sting, with whom he has also appeared in concert. Recently, he served as the Principal Cellist for five major fund-raising events held in Carnegie Hall: Beethoven’s Ninth for South Asia, Requiem for Darfur, Mahler for the Children of AIDS, Beethoven for the Indus Valley, and Shostakovich for the Children of Syria, which featured an international orchestra drawn from leading symphonic, chamber music, and solo artists from around the world. He has appeared as soloist with many orchestras, including frequently as Guest Principal Cellist of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

After studies at the Curtis Institute of Music and the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Stepansky graduated from Harvard University with the Horblit Prize, conferred for his outstanding musical accomplishments. Alan Stepansky’s students have won positions in numerous orchestras around the world, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Montreal Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and have successful careers as soloists, chamber musicians, and teachers.