Biography
A founding member of the Spektral Quartet, Russell Rolen has presented solo and chamber music recitals throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. He performs regularly in the Chicago area and around the Midwest, has appeared on the PianoForte Salon Series on Chicago’s WFMT and the Embassy Series in Washington, D.C. He has collaborated in performances and workshops with artists such as Rachel Barton-Pine, fiddler Mark O’Connor, Ilya Kaler, Christopher Taylor, and Anner Bylsma. Festival appearances include the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Musicorda Festival, and the Summer Festival at Lenk, Switzerland.
Russell is passionate about teaching, and in the past has held posts teaching musicians from kindergarten through college and beyond. For three years he was a faculty member of Ripon College in Ripon, WI, where he taught cello, chamber music, and conducted the orchestra. In the fall of 2009 he began coaching chamber music at Northwestern University.
An avid performer of new works by living composers, he has developed full recital programs consisting entirely of new works for cello solo and cello/piano. He is very active in the contemporary music scene in Chicago, performing often with Ensemble Dal Niente, Anaphora, and in April of 2010 collaborated with Kaija Saariaho in producing a concert of her cello works and in performing her concerto Amers with the composer at the electronics.
Russell has studied with some of the leading musicians and pedagogues of the day. His major teachers include Hans Jorgen-Jensen, Uri Vardi, and Stephen Kates. He had festival studies with Janos Starker, Ronald Leonard, Paul Katz, Laurence Lesser, and members of the Guarneri, Cleveland, Juilliard and Emerson string quartets.
Russell received his Master’s degree in cello performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was the recipient of the Paul Collins Distinguished Graduate Fellowship. He earned his Bachelor’s degree at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, MD. He is presently a candidate for the Doctor of Music degree at Northwestern University.