Named Principal Cello of the Los Angeles Philharmonic by Music Director Gustavo Dudamel in 2012, the American virtuoso cellist Robert DeMaine has been praised by The New York Times as "An artist who makes one hang on every note." Mr. DeMaine has distinguished himself as one of the finest and versatile musicians of his generation, having performed worldwide to vast critical acclaim from Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Grieghalle and Den Norske Opera in Norway, KKL Luzern, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, London's Wigmore Hall and Barbican Centre, Salle Pleyel in Paris, Vienna Konzerthaus, and the Berlin Philharmonie.

A first-prizewinner in many national and international competitions, Mr. DeMaine became, in 1990, the first cellist ever to win the Grand Prize at San Francisco's Irving M. Klein International Competition for Strings. As soloist, he has collaborated with many distinguished conductors, including Neeme Järvi, Peter Oundjian, Joseph Silverstein, Alexander Schneider, and Leonard Slatkin, and has performed virtually all of the major cello concerto repertoire with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, where he served as Principal Cellist since 2002. Mr. DeMaine has also served as principal in the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra (Norway).

Robert DeMaine's principal teachers include Leonard Rose, Steven Doane, Paul Katz, Aldo Parisot, Luis Garcia-Renart, and Felix Galimir, and counts among his chamber-music partners violinists James Ehnes, Hilary Hahn, Ani and Ida Kavafian, pianists Emanuel Ax, Orion Weiss, and Yefim Bronfman. He has made regular appearances at the international music festivals of Marlboro, Aspen, Heidelberg, San Miguel de Allende, Montréal, and Seattle, and is also the cellist of the highly acclaimed Ehnes Quartet. He is also an exclusive Thomastik-Infeld Artist, and plays an instrument made in 1684 by Antonio Stradivari, the "General Kyd, ex-Leo Stern."

From a military and musical family of French and Polish descent, Mr. DeMaine studied at the Juilliard School, Eastman School of Music, University of Southern California, Yale University, and the Kronberg Academy in Germany. For more information, please visit his official website at www.robertdemaine.com.

Photo credit: Craig T. Mathew/Mathew Imaging, Los Angeles