Cello

Anthony Ross

principal cello
John and Elizabeth Bates Cowles Chair

Principal Cello Anthony Ross has been a soloist many times with the Minnesota Orchestra, performing concertos by Dvorák, Victor Herbert, James MacMillan, Beethoven, Saint-Saëns and Elgar, among others, as well as many chamber works. In May 2009 he performed Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto under the baton of Edo de Waart; in October 2009 he was featured in the Schumann Cello Concerto in concerts led by Stefan Sanderling. In May 2010 he will perform the Brahms Double Concerto with Acting Concertmaster Sarah Kwak at concerts led by conductor Mark Wigglesworth.

Ross was principal cello of the Rochester Philharmonic in New York before joining the Orchestra in 1988; he assumed his current position in 1991.

Away from Orchestra Hall, Ross is active as a chamber musician, festival performer and educator. He has appeared in the Mostly Mozart, Cactus Pear (San Antonio) and Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society (Madison) festivals, and has performed on stages from Pensacola, Florida, to Rhodes, Greece. Ross has taught at the Eastman School of Music, the Aspen Festival and the Grand Teton orchestra seminar.

Ross’ recordings include Bernstein’s Three Meditations with the Minnesota Orchestra under Eiji Oue, the George Lloyd Cello Concerto with the Albany Symphony under David Alan Miller, and works of Rachmaninoff and Elliott Carter for Boston Records.

A graduate of Indiana University, Ross earned a master’s degree at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. In 1982 he was awarded the bronze medal at the prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition, and he received McKnight Fellowships in 2001 and 2005.