Cello with Najette A.

Najette's most recent season included orchestral and chamber music performances as a fellow with the Chicago Sinfonietta, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and as the 2021 Artist-in-Residence at the Cliff Dwellers Club. Najette A. finds herself with a varied season. She can be heard playing chamber music on several episodes of CSOtv, including three new music programs, a Civic fellows’ initiated Call for Scores concert, and a joint program for CSOtv and Dame Myra Hess Concert Series featured on WFMT Chicago. Currently, she performs weekly engagements at Artifact Events in Chicago giving socially distanced live performances in April, May, and June of Mozart and Beethoven masterworks. Recent collaborations highlights include a cello quartet performance at Chicago’s Symphony Center with cellist Yo-Yo Ma as well as performances with pianist Jeremy Denk, soprano Renee Flemming, and mezzo Denyce Graves. Amongst the distinguished conductors with whom she has performed are Riccardo Muti, Marin Alsop, Alan Gilbert, Leonard Slatkin, Bramwell Tovey, Edward Gardner, and Leon Fleisher. Najette also led the Music Academy of the West’s Symphony Orchestra in Matthew Aucoin’s “Crossing” Suite under the direction of the composer. As a principal player she has performed with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Amarillo Symphony, Music Academy of the West, Peabody Conservatory orchestras, Spoleto Festival USA to name a few. Najette A. made her recording debut on NAXOS’s 2018 KERNIS, A.J.: Flute Concerto / Air / Symphony No. 2 recording of Aaron Jay Kernis’ Flute Concerto and Second Symphony with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra Marina Piccinini and Leonard Slatkin. A Boston native, Najette A. began studying cello at the age of four with Nancy Hair. She earned her Graduate Performance Diploma and Bachelor of Music from the Peabody Conservatory under the tutelage of Alan Stepansky. Seminars and masterclasses include Takacs and Bretano quartets, as well as Frans Helmerson, Colin Carr, Astrid Schween, and Hans-JOrgen Jensen. Najette has studied with the principals of the Chicago and Boston symphonies as well as the LA Philharmonic, cellists John Sharp, Blaise Dejardin, and Robert deMaine respectively. She currently resides in Chicago, Illinois.