Six new string players join the orchestra in the violin and cello sections
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) has announced the appointment of new musicians as it heads into the 2024-25 season.
Six string players will join the violin and cello sections. They are Lachezar Kostov as associate principal cello, Tianlu (Jerry) Xu as section cello, plus Rose Brown, Elizabeth Furuta, Joseph Ohkubo and Jonathan Yi as section violins.
The string players were also appointed alongside David Alexander as acting associate principal horn and Noah Roper as bass trombone.
Jonathan Martin, president and CEO of the CSO expressed how the musicians represented the orchestra’s mission, vision and service to the community, as well as delight to welcome the new musicians to the orchestra ’as we prepare for the 2024-25 season and launch of Cristian Măcelaru’s tenure as music director of our orchestra in 2025.’
Cellist Lachezar Kostov will hold the Ona Hixson Dater chair as the CSO’s associate principal cello. He was formerly associate principal cellist of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and has performed as a soloist at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Leipzig Gewandhaus and Oji Hall in Tokyo.
Kostov studied cello at the National Conservatory in Sofia, Bulgaria and furthered his education at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and at Yale and Rice universities.
Cellist Tianlu (Jerry) Xu studied under professor Dahai Liu at the primary and middle schools affiliated with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. After moving to the US, he completed high school at Interlochen Arts Academy and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in cello performance from the Colburn Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Clive Greensmith, Ben Hong, Hans Jørgen Jensen and Ronald Leonard.
Xu previously held the position of third chair cellist at the Pacific Symphony and performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra during the summer of 2024.
Violinist Rose Brown previously served as an acting member of the CSO from 2022 to 2024 and regularly performs with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. She earned degrees in violin performance from Indiana University (BM) and the University of Michigan (MM), studying with Mimi Zweig and Danielle Belen, respectively.
Violinist Elizabeth Furata previously served as second associate concertmaster of the Omaha Symphony and as a member of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Furuta holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she received the Dr. Bennett Levine Memorial Award in Chamber Music. Her primary teachers include William Preucil, David Updegraff and the Cavani Quartet.
Violinist Joseph Ohkubo was previously an acting member of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and has also served as associate concertmaster of the Terre Haute Symphony and performed regularly with the Louisville Orchestra. received his bachelor’s degree from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in 2016. His primary teachers include Mauricio Fuks, Mimi Zweig and Peter McHugh.
Violinist Jonathan Yi has been a member of the Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra since 2022, where he was acting assistant concertmaster for the 2023 season. He studied at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University (IU), where he completed his bachelor’s degree with Mimi Zweig and his master’s degree with Alexander Kerr.
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