Allison Drenkow, Cellist

Cellist Allison Drenkow is an impassioned performer heralded by the Boston Globe as having “streamed through the spectrum of human emotions”. From “lyric melancholy” to a “tremble and roar”, press have praised Allison for the expansive dimension of her tone. Performing as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player, and studio cellist alike, Allison is a versatile talent.

Currently based in Boston, MA, Allison can be heard performing up and down the East Coast as Principal Cellist and fellowship recipient of Symphony Nova, member of the Atlantic Symphony, and in concert with the Hartford Symphony, Cape Symphony, Boston Chamber Symphony, Phoenix Orchestra, and Boston Philharmonic. In recent years Allison has been invited to perform as a guest soloist in the “Boston Bach Birthday” concert series and has been featured as the principal cellist in a commission project for the American Opera Projects. Passionate about the transformative power of music, Allison has been honored to perform at Carnegie Hall with Music for Life International, an orchestra made up of principal players from major orchestras around the world brought together to support a relevant humanitarian effort.

Allison has been featured in numerous publications including the Boston Globe, Boston Musical Intelligencer, WQXR’s Q2 in New York, and Ongaku Gendai (“Music Today”) Magazine in Japan. An active chamber musician, she has been a member of various string quartets and contemporary music ensembles including Hub New Music Ensemble, the Nova String Quartet, and New England Conservatory Contemporary Ensembles. In her travels, Allison has studied intensively and given solo performances at the Heifetz International Music Festival, Académie du Domaine Forget in Quebec, and Banff Arts Center in the Canadian Rockies. She has had the honor of performing as a soloist in public masterclasses for Lynn Harrell, Phillipe Muller, Colin Carr, Raphael Wallfisch, Andrés Diaz, Robert DeMaine (Principal, LA Philharmonic), and Yumi Kendall (Associate Principal, Philadelphia Orchestra) among others. Allison has also had the opportunity to work directly with the Juilliard, Emerson, Takacs, Borromeo, Brentano, St. Lawrence, Biava, and Vienna Musikverein String Quartets.

With great fervor for the orchestral tradition and repertoire, Allison has held Principal positions with the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra (Japan), National Festival Orchestra (USA), Atlantic Symphony, Symphony Nova, Occasional Symphony Orchestra, and New England Conservatory Chamber Orchestra. She has also held Principal positions and performed as a fellowship recipient with the Banff Festival Orchestra, as well as the Texas Music Festival Orchestra. Amid her experiences, she has had the honor of performing alongside principal and section cellists of the Vienna Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Allison has performed under the batons of renowned artists including Valery Gergiev, Lion Fleisher, John Axelrod, Asher Fisch, Mei Ann Chen, Lior Shambadal, Johannes Debus, Alan Pierson, Carlos Spierer, and Hugh Wolff. In the summer of 2017, Allison will be performing in Germany and surrounding countries with the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Orchestra under Christoph Eschenbach.

Outside of performing, Allison is also an active teacher. She has taught as an assistant chamber coach in the Peabody Preparatory program and currently in Boston she serves as a teacher and mentor for the Boston String Academy and Roxbury Youth Orchestra. In another capacity, Allison strives to encourage and enable young classical musicians in her role as a member of the Scholarship & Admissions team for National Public Radio’s, “From the Top”.

Allison Drenkow holds a Master of Music degree in Cello Performance from New England Conservatory and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. Her principal teachers include Alan Stepansky and Natasha Brofsky.