Katie Tertell

Award-winning American cellist Katie Tertell is a performer and artistic curator, innovating how classical music is digested in modern times. Katie is the Artistic Director and Founder of the Appalachian Chamber Music Festival. She is a core member of chamber collective Musici Ireland , member of critically-acclaimed band Howay the Lasses, artistic lead and co-founder of the “Lost in Plain Sight” research project, and founding member of Cello Power. Formerly a member of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, she enjoys a rich and varied experience as an artist in Europe, America and globally.   

Alongside work with internationally recognized ensembles, recording projects and appearances as a soloist, Katie focuses her attention on projects that aim to connect people through meaningful experiences in music, working cross-disciplinarily and in various sectors.  Since 2019, she has commissioned 13 chamber music works and is a champion of performing works by living composers.

Katie also performs and records with over a dozen celebrated European symphony and chamber orchestras on a freelance basis, including in guest principal roles for Welsh National Opera, English Symphony Orchestra, and the Ulster Orchestra at the BBC Proms. She can be heard regularly on BBC Radio 3 and RTÈ Lyric FM in recorded and live performances of both chamber and orchestral works. She teaches cello as part of the instrumental teaching staff at Durham University (UK).

Katie grew up outside of Washington D.C. in McLean, Virginia. She holds degrees with honors in performance from Indiana University, Cleveland Institute of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music, as well as a Second Masters degree in Suzuki Pedagogy from the Sato Center at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Her teachers and mentors include among many Janós Starker, Emilio Colón, Joely Koos, Peter Dixon and Ralph Kirschbaum. She plays on an 1888 Colin-Mezin cello, lovingly named Mr. Darcy.