The 2023 Masterclass Teacher is Alice Yoo renowned cellist and Instructor of Cello at Colorado State University.  

Cellist Alice Yoo has been warmly hailed for her sensitive musicianship, expressive nuance, and passionate commitment to teaching. She has performed extensively throughout the United States and abroad as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician.

Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of the Denver Chamber Music Festival, she and cellist Matthew Zalkind have created a new chamber music festival in Denver, Colorado that features the world’s most sought-after chamber musicians in world-class chamber music summer concerts all around the city of Denver.

A sought after chamber musician, Yoo has performed with distinguished artists including Itzhak Perlman, Mitsuko Uchida, Dénes Varjon, Donald Weilerstein, Pamela Frank, Miriam Fried, Midori Goto, Kim Kashkashian, Jonathan Biss, and members of the Cleveland, Guarneri, Takacs, and Juilliard Quartets. Festival appearances include the Marlboro Music Festival, Moab Music Festival, Ravinia Festival, Music@Menlo, Yellow Barn, Caramoor Evnin Rising Stars, Perlman Music Program, VIVO Music Festival, Olympic Music Festival, and IMS Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music. Yoo regularly appears on tour with Musicians from Marlboro and performs with premiere ensembles including the New York Classical Players, East Coast Chamber Orchestra, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, and Grammy nominated ensembles A Far Cry, The Knights, and Metropolis Ensemble. 

From 2012-2014, Yoo was a member of Ensemble Connect (ACJW), a program of Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School of Music, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education.  In addition to creating engaging chamber music programs for detention centers, hospitals, and other community centers in all five boroughs of New York City, she was a guest teaching artist in Edward R Murrow High School in Brooklyn for two years.

Yoo is currently on the chamber music faculty at the University of Denver's Lamont School of Music. She previously held the post of guest cello professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder during the 2018-2019 and 2022 school years. Other teaching posts include faculty of cello at the Green Mountain Music Festival, Boulder Cello Festival, Guest Artist at the 2019 and 2021 Intermountain Suzuki String Institute, faculty of cello and chamber music at Bard College’s Preparatory Division, and masterclasses and residencies across the United States including Skidmore College, North Dakota State University, and more. 

As winner of the USC 2009 String Concerto Competition, Yoo performed Samuel Barber’s Cello Concerto with the USC Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Jorge Mester, the performance later featured on Los Angeles’ KUSC radio. She is a top prize winner in several competitions, including the Holland-America Music Society Competition, Schadt International String Competition, National Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artist Competition, and Klein International String Competition. Solo appearances with orchestra include the USC Chamber Orchestra, Longmont Symphony, Cleveland Philharmonic, New York Classical Players, Billings Symphony, and the Bozeman Symphony. Her performances have been featured and broadcasted on Colorado Public Radio, Chicago’s WFMT, and Boston’s WGBH.

Passionate for new music, Yoo has worked closely with the esteemed composers Sophia Gubaidulina, Jennifer Hidgon, György Kurtág, Paul Wiankco, and John Harbison. She has given world premieres of acclaimed composers Samuel Carl Adams and Andy Akiho at Carnegie Hall. Recent recordings include Pierre Jalbert’s String Trio for Music at Copland House, music of the Tonight Show band The Roots, and works by Andy Akiho and Derek Bermel with Grammy award-winning producer Judith Sherman.

A native of Bozeman, Montana, Yoo’s teachers include Ralph Kirshbaum, Dr. Ilse-Mari Lee, Richard Aaron, and Paul Katz. She holds degrees from the New England Conservatory, Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England, and the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. 

Yoo currently resides in Denver, Colorado with her husband, cellist Matthew Zalkind, and plays on a cello made in 2018 by Ryan Soltis.

More information can be found at Aliceyoocello.com and Denverchambermusicfestival.org

Masterclass Participation Regulations

Masterclass Participation Information and Policies​

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Masterclass participants will be made up of the winners of the preliminary round from the Cello Competition in 2023.  Please visit the Competition page for rules and to register to play. 

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