Rebecca Thornblade, a grand prize winner of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition, has had an active and versatile career as a chamber music and orchestral cellist. Ms. Thornblade has played with many ensembles throughout the country which include the award-winning Fry Street and Avalon quartets and as principal cellist of the New World Symphony in Miami and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. She has participated in the Aspen Music Festival Advanced Quartet Studies Program, Chamber Music Encounters in Jerusalem with Isaac Stern, the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, the Britt Festival in Oregon, the Colorado Music Festival, the Spoleto Festival U.S.A., the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Tanglewood Fellowship Program, the Sarasota Chamber Music Festival, among others.
Ms. Thornblade has worked with many renowned quartets such as the Vermeer, Juilliard, Orion, Takacs and members of the Cleveland and Emerson Quartets. She was featured on WGBH’s “Classical Performances” with pianist Gilbert Kalish and has collaborated with flutist Carol Wincenc and pianist Randall Hodgkinson.
Her teaching experience includes work with the MusiCorps Program through the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Midori Foundation in New York, outreach programs with the New World Symphony and Chamber Music America’s Rural Residency Program and as Adjunct Professor of Cello at Rhode Island College. She was a member of the chamber music faculty at Point Counterpoint in Vermont for seven years.
Rebecca is currently a member of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra and has performed with Opera Boston, Odyssey Opera, the Chamber Orchestra of Boston, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Cantata Singers. She has appeared as a chamber musician with Lyrica Boston, Lyrica Chamber Music in New Jersey, the Suzuki School of Newton’s Artist Concert Series, the New Gallery Concert Series, The Radius Ensemble, The Firebird Ensemble and the Worcester Chamber Music Society. In addition to her private teaching studio, she is on the Senior Music Performance Faculty in cello at Wellesley College.
Ms. Thornblade received her Bachelor’s in Music from the Oberlin Conservatory as a student of Norman Fischer and Peter Rejto and her Master’s in Music from the Juilliard School with Joel Krosnick.
