The Cello Sherpa Podcast

A top-level orchestra audition after a 16-year break sounds like a nightmare, until you hear how Craig Mulcahy rebuilt his process and walked away with the Principal Trombone seat in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Craig shares what pushed him to look beyond Washington, D.C., how uncertainty around the Kennedy Center changed his risk math, and why “audition shape” is a separate, intense kind of tr...

A world-class string quartet can look effortless on stage, but the reality is closer to running a small business with no off switch, and doing it with the same three people for years. We’re joined by cellist Tate Zavadiuk, founding member of the Viano String Quartet, to get honest about how a professional chamber music career is actually built: one relationship, one rehearsal, and one hard convers...

Bach’s cello suites are some of the most recorded, most studied music ever written, which raises a risky question: can you add anything to them without breaking what makes them timeless? We explore that question with Brick House Duo, cellist Jennifer Kloetzel and violinist Peter Wilson, as they share the story and craft behind their album The Bach Wilson Project and the life partnership that power...

He had the conservatory training, the orchestral chops, and the “proper” classical path laid out ahead of him, but Sebastian Plano couldn’t ignore the stronger call: make his own music. We sit down with the Grammy-nominated cellist and composer to trace the real turning points, from leaving Lisbon on a one-way ticket to Boston, to realizing that interpretation alone was not enough, to building a c...

Your bow is the only part of your rig you touch every second you play, yet most of us shop for one like we’re guessing in the dark. We sit in a room, try ten options, get overwhelmed by “better” and “worse,” and somehow leave with more confusion than we started with. That’s why we brought on Evan Orman, a working cellist who became a full-time bowmaker and now spends his days repairing, restoring,...

The audition screen can make great players feel powerless, but it also reveals something encouraging: the results often go to the musician with the most repeatable process. We’re joined by cellist Charles Zandieh, fresh off a one-year position with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and heading into a tenure-track role with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, to talk about what actually moves the needle...

The fastest way to get better is not a secret scale system or a new bow hold. It’s learning how to think like a musician who can last. We sit down with cellist Natasha Brofsky, chair of the Juilliard School cello department, to trace the real arc of a life in music: early obsession, world-class training, hard choices about career paths, and the daily mindset that keeps artistry alive under pressur...

Your audition might win you the seat, but your day-to-day behavior decides whether people actually want to sit next to you for the next 20 years. The Cello Sherpa Podcast Host, Joel Dallow, is joined by cellist Jennifer Humphreys, currently with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, to talk about the orchestra etiquette music school rarely teaches: the quiet, practical choices that signal professional...

Thirty years in the principal chair can look effortless from the audience, but it rarely feels that way from the stage. We’re joined by cellist Carter Brey as he steps back and takes stock of a remarkable run leading the New York Philharmonic cello section and why he’s choosing to retire at the end of the season while his playing still feels strong. We get into what most people never see: how long...

You’ve heard of side-by-side concerts, but what happens when adult amateur musicians don’t just drop in for a night, they move into the orchestra for an entire week? We sit down with conductor Nicholas Hersh to unpack the Baltimore Symphony Academy, a rare program where participants rehearse and perform shoulder to shoulder with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra musicians in a true “fantasy camp” for o...

A cello career can begin in the most unlikely place and still end up on the world’s biggest stages. We sit down with acclaimed cellist Seth Parker Woods, a fearless advocate for contemporary classical music and a leading voice for commissioning new works, to trace the real steps behind a life in music: the early spark, the teachers who mattered, and the moment the path starts to click. We talk abo...

Cello and piano can be a brutal matchup when nobody makes room, but when the balance is right it becomes one of the most revealing duo formats in music. We sit down with cellist Matt Haimovitz and pianist Christopher O’Riley to trace how their partnership started, why it clicked so fast, and what they’ve learned from years of turning rehearsal into a kind of shared research lab. We talk about buil...

One missed signup and a burst of kid-level courage can set an entire life in motion. Cellist and composer Dorothy Lawson grew up in Toronto surrounded by classical music and strong school music programs, but she didn’t “choose” cello in some grand, cinematic way. She simply chose to participate a day late, and the next opening happened to be cello. From there, the path becomes a masterclass in how...

A kid gets asked to “play a scale” by one of the greatest cellists who ever lived and has no idea what a scale is. That moment could have ended in embarrassment and retreat, but for Ole Akahoshi it became the beginning of a lifelong education in craft, taste, and what it really means to make the cello sing. The Cello Sherpa Podcast Host, Joel Dallow, sits down with Ole Akahoshi, cellist and facult...

He picked orchestra because he thought there would be drums and that mix-up changed his life. Cellist Tommy Mesa joins us to trace the real arc from an accidental start in Miami to major career milestones, including joining the Manhattan School of Music faculty, winning the Sphinx Competition, and earning top honors like the Avery Fisher Career Grant. Along the way, we talk about what makes a clas...

Classical music can change a life, but it can also quietly decide whose life gets changed. The Cello Sherpa Podcast Host, Joel Dallow, sits down with Stanford Thompson, founder of Play On Philly and executive director of Equity Arc, to talk about the moment he realized music isn’t neutral and why “work hard” is only part of the story when access to training, instruments, time, and insider mentorsh...

A tiny sixteenth-size cello, a stubborn toddler, and a violin shop tantrum, that’s how this story begins. From there, Inbal Megido grew into an international soloist and chamber musician, studied with the legendary Aldo Parisot at Yale, and ultimately built a rich artistic life in Wellington, New Zealand. We explore how a childhood steeped in music became a fluent language, how cross-continental m...

A seven-year-old chooses the cello because “you get to sit,” and decades later becomes a sought-after pedagogue who reshapes how students think about practice, expression, and careers. That’s the arc that The Cello Sherpa Podcast host, Joel Dallow, explores with cellist and educator Melissa Kraut, equal parts heart, humor, and hard-won clarity. We dive into the early thrill of playing by ear and t...

What does it really take to move from a childhood in a Soviet special music school to the principal chair of a top American orchestra? The Cello Sherpa Podcast Host, Joel Dallow, sits down with Ilya Finkelshteyn to trace that journey, through refugee camps, early months in Minnesota with two suitcases and $300, a total technical rebuild at Juilliard with Harvey Shapiro, and a relentless audition c...

A single question—“Can I have it?”—nearly sent a child’s cello out the door. Instead, that moment lit a fuse that carried Hee-Young Lim from piano lessons and packed Korean school days to principal chair in Rotterdam and a teaching home at Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music. The Cello Sherpa Podcast host, Joel Dallow, interviews Hee-Young, and they take a deep dive into the chain of choices t...

A cello can feel like an escape, a calling, and eventually a limb. That’s how Johannes Moser describes the moment the instrument clicked for him and why, decades later, he still loves the daily work most players dread. Our conversation traces his path from messy youth concerts and amateur orchestras to major stages, revealing how real leadership grows when the horn enters early, the violas miss a...

Perfectionism can sharpen your playing or steal your joy. The Cello Sherpa Podcast Host, Joel Dallow, sits down with clinical psychologist Dr. Ellen Hendriksen to unpack where that line lives for working musicians and how to keep your standards high without letting self-worth rise and fall with every take. Ellen breaks down seven core patterns behind perfectionism—over-evaluation, self-criticism,...

What does it really take to lead a world-class cello section while raising two young kids and navigating an orchestra’s evolving culture? The Cello Sherpa Podcast Host, Joel Dallow, sits down with San Francisco Symphony principal cellist Rainer Eudeikis for a candid, witty, and deeply practical conversation about moving from Utah to Atlanta to the Bay Area, why some orchestras feel close-knit whil...

What if a great music career isn’t either–or but yes–and? The Cello Sherpa Podcast Host, Joel Dallow, sits down with violinist Eunice Kim to explore how a childhood steeped in sound turned into a life that balances the intimacy of chamber music, the rigor of orchestral work, and the freedom of solo projects. From a seven-year-old debut in Seoul to the charged Saturdays at the San Francisco Conserv...

What if the thing that makes people laugh at your art is the same thing that makes them listen closer? That’s the tension—and the opportunity—at the heart of our conversation with cellist and filmmaker Nick Canellakis, whose viral sketches and serious performances are two sides of one craft. We dig into the roots: a musical family, early piano, and the moment the cello took hold. Then the parallel...