Tony Rymer, cello

Cellist Tony Rymer has performed major concerti to critical acclaim with the Atlanta Symphony, Boston Pops, Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, and Pittsburgh Symphony, among others. He was the Second Prize Winner in the 2014 Enescu Competition, won first prize of the 2009 Sphinx Competition Senior Division and took 3rd place in the 2009 Stulberg International String Competition.

A native of Boston, Tony began playing cello at age five, attended the Walnut Hill Arts School, was a Project STEP scholarship student from 1996-2007, and was awarded the prestigious Kravitz scholarship in 2007. One of the first recipients of the Jack Kent Cooke Award on the NPR national radio show From the Top, he has also been heard as soloist on WGBH Boston, WCLV Cleveland, and NPR’s Performance Today.

An avid chamber musician, Tony has collaborated in concert with artists such as violinists Ani Kavafian, Miriam Fried, Itzhak Perlman, oboist Peggy Pearson, violists Kim Kashkashian, Barbara Westphal, and cellist Paul Katz.

Tony has played privately for Yo-Yo Ma and performed in master classes for Anner Bylsma, Steven Isserlis, and Pieter Wispelwey. He completed his undergraduate at the New England Conservatory where he studied with Paul Katz and Laurence Lesser while holding the Laurence Lesser Presidential Scholarship. He is currently a Masters student of Frans Helmerson at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik. Highlights of this season include a tour of Japan playing string quartets with Midori and attending the Marlboro Festival in Vermont.

Tony plays on a cello made by John Betts in 1785 on loan from the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute.