Koestenbaum, Joshua

Cellist who attended Stanford and Yale and studied with Bonnie Hampton, Zara Nelsova, Aldo Parisot and Margaret Rowell.

In 1980, he joined the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and subsequently became their associate principal cellist. Other groups with whom he has worked include Aspen Festival Orchestra, the Grant Park Festival Orchestra, the Minneapolis Trio, the San Jose Symphony and the St. Paul Civic Symphony.

Joshua was one of the soloists when the SPCO took the stage at St. Olaf College on 2^nd March 2001. He performed “Cello Concerto in D” by Giuseppe Tartini. It became sort of a signature piece for him during the 2001-2002 season, when he also subbed for Heinrich Schiff on short notice to play the “Concerto in C” of Franz Joseph Haydn.

In 2005, he gave a demonstration entitled “The Secrets, Lives, and Violins of the Great Cremona makers 1505-1744” at the National Music Museum conference.

He and pianist Susan Billmeyer and violinist Leslie Shank were guest soloists of the St. Paul Civic Symphony at the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center and Gallery on 2^nd December 2007 when they interpreted the “Triple Concerto” of Ludwig van Beethoven.

In May 2008, he reunited with Leslie Shank for a recital of Beethoven’s “Archduke Trio, Op. 97”, with Lydia Artymiw at the keys.

He and seven other members of the SPCO offered up Felix Mendelssohn’s “String Octet in E flat, Op. 20” in May 2009.

On the small screen, he appeared in Minnesota Originals on Twin Cities Public Television in 2010.

On 23^rd January 2011, he and pianist Matthew McCright gave a recital in Carleton College Concert Hall that included “Fantasy Pieces” by Robert Schumann, “Pohadka” by Leos Janacek and a pair of sonatas by Francis Poulenc and Alfred Schnittke.

The Minneapolis Trio delivered the concert premiere of Ethan Wickman’s “Chaconne and Toccata” in March 2012.

Recordings on which Joshua appears include: Album by Angel Grant; The Best of Me by Yolanda Adams; The Collection by Ninety-Eight Degrees; Copland: Appalachian Spring with Hugh Wolff; Feeling Strangely Fine by Semisonic; Home Again by New Edition; Intimate by Patti Austin; The Morning After by Deborah Cox; Rainbow by Mariah Carey; and, Stravinsky: Pulcinella (Complete Ballet)/Concerto in E flat “Dumbarton Oaks” with the SPCO.

In the field of music education, he has served as a coach at the National Orchestral Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, a master class clinician for the Allegro Orchestral Association, and given private lessons and taught at the summer academy of St. Olaf College.

Sources:

Koestenbaum, Joshua

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