Edgar Meyer, Tessa Lark & Joshua Roman
DAZZLING CLASSICAL/BLUEGRASS CROSSOVER STARS
CMNW is proud to present one of the most tremendous chamber music tours of the season: the superstar trio of seven-time Grammy Award-winning bass virtuoso Edgar Meyer, genre-crossing Kentucky-born violinist Tessa Lark, and electrifying cellist Joshua Roman. The ensemble will perform everything from Bach to Meyer’s own string trios, plus some new music written especially for their inaugural tour—and some fancy fiddling on violin, cello, and bass! Don’t miss this collaboration of three singular figures in American concert music who are adept instrumentalists with fierce classical chops, deep connections to roots and fiddle music, and expansive artistic sensibilities.
COME EARLY: PRELUDE PERFORMANCE
Beginning at 6:30 PM in the lobby, CMNW’s Education & Community Engagement program features young violinist Erin Qiu, University of Oregon violinist Xiaoyin Zhang, and the Cascadian Trio who will be performing Shostakovich’s first piano trio. FREE and open to the public.
NOTE: Rush tickets are not available for this concert.
“Friday’s reading, with its astonishingly unified articulations and attacks, was a model of character and style. Also, heart: the slow movement’s denouement offered a touching, beautifully balanced culmination of thematic ideas.”
— Boston Classical Review
Patricia Reser Center for the Arts
Saturday, 1/10 • 7:30 pm
Program
Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.
- J. S. BACH Sonata for Viola da Gamba in G Major, BWV 1027
J. S. BACH (1685-1750) Sonata for Viola da Gamba in G Major, BWV 1027 (1730-40s)
I. Adagio
II. Allegro ma non tanto
III. Andante
IV. Allegro moderatoOn two occasions in 1723, the rich musical life of Leipzig got magnificently richer. On May 22, the famous musician Johann Sebastian Bach arrived to assume the post of cantor and music director at St. Thomas’s Church, one of the city’s musical epicenters. Bach, now thirty-six years old, had achieved enough celebrity throughout Germany for his elite musical skill, that not only his appointment, but his family’s very arrival in Leipzig was reported in newspapers as far away as Hamburg, 180 miles away (“He himself arrived with his family on 2 carriages at 2 o’clock and moved into the newly renovated apartment in the St. Thomas School”).
The other great development to occur that year was the partnership between Gottfried Zimmermann’s coffeehouse, Leipzig’s most prominent such establishment, and the Collegium Musicum. The Collegium was a performing collective of singers and instrumentalists (largely comprising students) founded in 1701 by Georg Philipp Telemann, and had since then played a vital role in Leipzig’s musical culture. Zimmermann’s coffeehouse included a concert hall that could accommodate large ensembles, and audiences of 150 (the neighborhood Starbucks it most certainly was not). A series of weekly concerts—always free of charge—sprung from this partnership, and would eventually fall under Bach’s supervision when he became the Collegium’s music director in 1729.
Though overseeing this series undoubtedly added a substantial commitment to Bach’s already demanding church duties, he nevertheless thrived in his dual position as cantor at St. Thomas’s and concert presenter at Zimmerman’s coffeehouse. In fact, in addition to offering works by Handel, Locatelli, Scarlatti, and others, Bach moreover took advantage of the Collegium series as an opportunity to compose a good deal of non-liturgical music himself: primarily instrumental music, as well as a number of cantatas known as “moral cantatas,” lighthearted musical dramas dealing with themes of moral virtue (including the famous “Coffee Cantata,” which passes tongue-in-cheek judgment on the vice of caffeine addiction).
The instrumental works Bach produced for this series include numerous important works, among them this first of three Sonatas for Viola da Gamba, BWV 1027-29. Bach’s Collegium works for Zimmermann’s coffeehouse also include the six Sonatas for Violin and Keyboard Obbligato, BWV 1014-19; the Violin Concerto in a minor, BWV 1065; and the famous Double Concerto in d minor, BWV 1043.
The G Major Sonata for Viola da Gamba also exists as a trio sonata for two flutes and basso continuo, BWV 1039, which is almost certainly the earlier version (probably from Bach’s days as cappellmeister at Cöthen). By the late 1730s (around the time of Bach’s arrangement for viola da gamba of his trio sonata), the viola da gamba had already begun to fall out of favor as a solo instrument. Marin Marais, the instrument’s greatest virtuoso, had died in 1728. Bach remained a champion of the instrument, however, as evidenced by his use of it in numerous concerti, cantatas, and the St. John and St. Matthew Passions, in addition to these sonatas. They remain today as standard repertoire for both the viola and cello; the latter’s more burnished tone, compared to the delicacy of the gamba, demands a heightened sensitivity of the player to the nuances of Bach’s writing. The early Bach biographer Philipp Spitta—who ranked the G Major among the three gamba sonatas “the loveliest, the purest idyll conceivable”—also noted that the viola da gamba “afforded a great variety in the production of tone, but its fundamental character was tender and expressive rather than full and vigorous. Thus Bach could rearrange a trio originally written for two flutes and bass, for viol da gamba, with harpsichord obbligato, without destroying its dominant character.”
The sonata does indeed demonstrate trio sonata-style writing. Instead of a sparse basso continuo accompaniment to the through-composed gamba part, Bach provides a complete keyboard accompaniment, which moves in melodic and contrapuntal dialogue with the soloist. In the opening movement, a dignified yet dance-like Adagio, the keyboard and gamba bear equal melodic responsibility, often following each other in canon. The movement’s latter half features an intricately involved dialogue between the two, colored gracefully in turn by florid countermelodies and ornamental trills.
The work follows the four-movement structure of the Italian sonata da chiesa (‘church sonata’) from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Following a slow introduction, Bach launches into the fugal Allegro ma non tanto, whose rollicking, perfectly shaped subject inches its way upwards before quickly laughing its way back down to its starting point. The third movement is a languishing Andante in the relative minor, which the finale answers with another jovial fugue.
In the great wealth of solo and chamber instrumental works throughout Bach’s oeuvre, the Sonatas for Viola da Gamba are among those gems that have, though certainly not ignored, somewhat taken a back seat to the Cello Suites, the Sonatas and Partitas for Violin, Die Kunst der Fuge, and other such works. Even two hundred years ago, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, Bach’s first biographer, only quaintly made note of “Several Sonatas for Harpsichord and Violin, Harpsichord and Flute, Harpsichord and Viol da Gamba. They are admirably written and most of them are pleasant to listen to even today.” These sonatas are far from second-tier pieces, however, and demonstrate Bach’s genius in the mature years of his career as fully as any other works.
—© Patrick Castillo
- EDGAR MEYER Trios for Violin, Cello & Bass
EDGAR MEYER (b. 1960) Selected Trios for Violin, Cello & Bass
Trio 1986
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IV.New Trio (2024)
I.
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IV.Trio 1988
I.
II.
III.
IV.In 1986–1988 I wrote a series of three string trios that I premiered with Daniel Phillips and Carter Brey at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. These were the first longer pieces that I had conceived as such, and they set the tone for my next four decades. Only one was partially recorded. After meeting Tessa and Joshua a few years ago, I realized that they were perfect for helping me document this personal milestone. I have now set out to write a new trio for us to “complete the thought.”
—© Edgar Meyer
Commissioning support provided by:
Aspen Music Festival and School, Robert Spano, Music Director
Big Ears Festival
Cal Performances
Jay and Susie Gogue Performing Arts Center at Auburn University
The Lied Center of Kansas at University of Kansas- Program Notes for Edgar Meyer, Tessa Lark & Joshua Roman Concert
For a young musician choosing what instrument to play, is double bass the most practical choice? Absolutely not. It’s physically challenging to play. Solo repertoire is almost non-existent. Not to mention you’ll have to book a second seat on every flight you take for the rest of your life.
That certainly didn’t stop Edgar Meyer (b. 1960). He picked up his first bass at age 5, and before long he was joining jazz bands, accompanying church choirs, and playing at weddings. He studied at Indiana University, where teachers tried to get him to focus on either classical or jazz. Meyer refused to choose, instead forging a new path that straddled the barriers between those genres and many others.
Since then, he has established a reputation as one of the United States’ preeminent performers, composers, and recording artists. His accolades include the MacArthur “Genius Grant” and seven Grammy awards, and he has performed alongside everyone from Yo-Yo Ma and the Emerson Quartet to Béla Fleck, Chris Thile, and Zakir Hussain.
In a recent radio interview, Meyer explained why he wanted to begin this program with the Sonata for Viola da Gamba in G Major, BWV 1027 by J. S. Bach (1685–1750): “Bach is my favorite musician. Starting the program with him is a little bit like saying a prayer hoping that we can in some small way aspire towards his example.”
Even during Bach’s own lifetime, many different arrangements of this sonata existed. Tonight’s performers continue that tradition, as Meyer plays the keyboard’s bass line, Lark plays the keyboard’s treble line, and Roman plays the viola da gamba line.
The sonata begins with a gentle Adagio, flowing along in extended, twelve-beat measures of heightened harmonic tension. Its unresolved final cadence sets up a vigorous Allegro ma non tanto full of Bach’s trademark counterpoint style. The Andante changes the mood with its E minor key, gradually unfurling over a consistent repeated bass note, or pedal point. Finally, in the Allegro moderato, all three musicians demonstrate their dexterity, sprinting to the final note with rapid-fire scales.
Between 1986 and 1988, Edgar Meyer wrote three trios for the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, premiering them with violinist Daniel Phillips and cellist Carter Brey. He selected this instrumentation very carefully, describing how “adding violin and cello adds the full range of tessitura and color, not to mention harmonic and contrapuntal possibilities . . . 1 + 2 = 500.”
Meyer called Trio 1986 the “first kind of big piece I ever wrote.” Its first movement begins with a slow, tense meditation, before a folksy fiddle line introduces a more lighthearted tone. The second movement builds to a transcendent final moment, where its two contrasting musical ideas finally join together. The third movement, showcasing Meyer’s bluegrass chops, features offbeat solos over bluesy bass riffs. In the finale, each performer takes their turn showing off with ferocious runs, all over a consistent, driving repeated pedal point.
Nearly 40 years after premiering his first trio, Meyer decided the time had come to create the first full recording of these important works. “After meeting Tessa and Joshua a few years ago, I realized that they were perfect for helping me document this personal milestone,” he wrote. Regarding the New Trio (2024), he continued, “I have now set out to write a new trio for us to ‘complete the thought.’”
Musically, Meyer’s style has changed over time, but not to the core. As he put it, “I recognize the person from 40 years ago and from now, but I’ve had time to pick up some other interests, or just explore things that I hadn’t had time to explore when I was 25.”
The New Trio’s first movement explores a series of miniature musical ideas in a manner reminiscent of the agile string quartets of composers like Bartók or Shostakovich. In the more reserved second movement, a contemplative melody gradually becomes overwhelmed by Baroque-style ornamentation, before eventually springing into a more folklike space. The third movement sets a rougher tone with harsh, almost sea shanty-like melodies. Much like the 1986 trio, this one roars to a conclusion with perpetual motion, in this case with hints of “Summer” from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.
The program closes with the third of Meyer’s early trios, Trio 1988. Its easygoing first movement alternates gently suspended harmonies with more dancelike sections. The second movement is a miniature gem, evoking popular music through its syncopated bass line, smooth chord structure, and hummable melody. A bluegrass vibe defines the third movement, with a groovy plucked bass line interrupted by cello and violin interjections. The trio’s finale foreshadows the more abstract approach of the 2024 trio. A repeated pitch provides a point of stability, around which melodies wind with ease until the effervescent ending.
—© Ethan Allred
Artists
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Tessa Lark
Violin
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Violinist Tessa Lark is one of the most captivating artistic voices of our time, consistently praised by critics and audiences for her astounding range of sounds, technical agility, and musical elegance. Increasingly in demand in the classical realm, in 2020 she was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category. She is also a highly acclaimed fiddler in the tradition of her native Kentucky, delighting audiences with programming that includes Appalachian and bluegrass music and inspiring composers to write for her.
Following a busy summer that saw her perform with the Sarasota Festival, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Music Society SummerFest, Classical Tahoe, Tippet Rise, and Moab Music Festival, among others, highlights of Lark’s 2024-25 season include returns to the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London and the Rochester Philharmonic, and a debut with Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. In recital she will debut with San Francisco Symphony, University of California at Santa Barbara and the Artist Series of Sarasota. She reprises Michael Torke’s violin concerto, Sky—written for her, and the 2020 recording of which earned her a Grammy nomination—with the Boulder and Colorado Springs Philharmonic Orchestras, as well as the West Michigan, Williamsburg, Shreveport, and Tallahassee Symphony Orchestras. As a chamber musician, she will tour with her string trio project with composer-bassist Edgar Meyer and cellist Joshua Roman through the fall to venues including Meany Hall, Seattle, Cal Performances Berkeley, WPAS in Washington D.C., and the Boston Celebrity Series.
The violinist has performed with orchestras, recital venues, and festivals around the world. She has appeared with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra; the Louisville Orchestra; the Stuttgart Philharmonic and the Indianapolis, Knoxville and Seattle Symphonies; as well as being presented by Carnegie Hall, New York’s Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Cal Performances, San Francisco Performances, the Seattle Chamber Music Society, Australia’s Musica Viva Festival, and the Marlboro, Mostly Mozart, and Bridgehampton summer festivals.
Lark’s most recent album, The Stradgrass Sessions, released in spring 2023, features an all-star roster of collaborators and composers including Meyer, pianist Jon Batiste, mandolinist Sierra Hull, and fiddler Michael Cleveland. Album selections mix original compositions by Lark and her collaborators with a sonata by Eugène Ysaÿe, a selection of Bartók’s violin duets arranged for violin and mandolin, and the World Premiere recording of John Corigliano’s STOMP.
Lark’s debut commercial recording was the Grammy-nominated Sky, a bluegrass-inspired violin concerto written for her by Michael Torke and performed with the Albany Symphony Orchestra. Besides The Stradgrass Sessions, her discography also includes Fantasy on First Hand Records: fantasias by Schubert, Telemann, and Fritz Kreisler; Ravel’s Tzigane; and Lark’s own composition Appalachian Fantasy. Invention, marking the debut album for the violin-bass duo made up of Lark and bassist Michael Thurber, comprises arrangements of two-part inventions by J. S. Bach along with original compositions by both duo partners. Finally, a live performance recording of Astor Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires was released in 2021 by the Buffalo Philharmonic in honour of Piazzolla’s centenary.
Lark is a recipient of the Hunt Family Award, one of Lincoln Center’s prestigious Emerging Artist Awards, as well as a 2018 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship and a 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant. She was Silver Medalist in the 9th Quadrennial International Violin Competition of Indianapolis and winner of the 2012 Naumburg International Violin Competition.
In addition to her performance schedule, Lark is Artistic Director of Musical Masterworks, a chamber music presenter in Old Lyme, Connecticut. She champions young aspiring artists and supports the next generation of musicians through her work as Co-host/Creative of NPR’s From the Top, the premier radio showcase for the nation’s most talented young musicians. She also serves as Mentor and board member of the Irving M. Klein International Strings Competition.
Lark is a graduate of New England Conservatory and completed her Artist Diploma at The Juilliard School, where she studied with Sylvia Rosenberg, Ida Kavafian, and Daniel Phillips. Her primary mentors include Cathy McGlasson, Kurt Sassmannshaus, Miriam Fried, and Lucy Chapman. She plays a ca. 1600 G.P. Maggini violin on loan from an anonymous donor through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.
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Edgar Meyer
Bass & Composer
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In demand as both a performer and a composer, Edgar Meyer has formed a role in the music world unlike any other. Hailed by The New Yorker as “…the most remarkable virtuoso in the relatively un-chronicled history of his instrument,” Mr. Meyer’s unparalleled technique and musicianship in combination with his gift for composition have brought him to the fore, where he is appreciated by a vast, varied audience. His uniqueness in the field was recognized by a MacArthur Award in 2002.
As a solo classical bassist, Mr. Meyer can be heard on a concerto album with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra conducted by Hugh Wolff featuring Bottesini’s Gran Duo with Joshua Bell, Meyer’s own Double Concerto for Bass and Cello with Yo-Yo Ma, Bottesini’s Bass Concerto No. 2, and Meyer’s own Concerto in D for Bass. He has also recorded an album featuring three of Bach’s Unaccompanied Suites for Cello. In 2006, he released a self-titled solo recording on which he wrote and recorded all of the music, incorporating piano, guitar, mandolin, dobro, banjo, gamba, and double bass. In 2007, recognizing his wide-ranging recording achievements, Sony/BMG released a compilation of The Best of Edgar Meyer. In 2011, Mr. Meyer joined cellist Yo-Yo Ma, mandolinist Chris Thile, and fiddler Stuart Duncan for the Sony Masterworks recording The Goat Rodeo Sessions which was awarded the 2012 Grammy Award for Best Folk Album.
As a composer, Mr. Meyer has carved out a remarkable and unique niche in the musical world. One of his most recent compositions is the Double Concerto for Double Bass and Violin which received its world premiere July 2012 with Joshua Bell at the Tanglewood Music Festival with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Meyer and Mr. Bell have also performed the work at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Aspen Music Festival, and with the Nashville and Toronto symphony orchestras. In the 2011-12 season, Mr. Meyer was Composer-in-Residence with the Alabama Symphony where he premiered his third concerto for double bass and orchestra. Mr. Meyer has collaborated with Béla Fleck and Zakir Hussain to write a triple concerto for double bass, banjo, and tabla, which was commissioned for the opening of the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville. The triple concerto was recorded with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin and featured on the 2009 recording The Melody of Rhythm, a collection of trio pieces all co-composed by Mr. Meyer, Mr. Fleck, and Mr. Hussain. Mr. Meyer has performed his second double bass concerto with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and his first double bass concerto with Edo de Waart and the Minnesota Orchestra. Other compositions of Mr. Meyer’s include a violin/piano work which has been performed by Joshua Bell at New York’s Lincoln Center, a quintet for bass and string quartet premiered with the Emerson String Quartet and recorded on Deutsche Grammophon, a Double Concerto for Bass and Cello premiered with Yo-Yo Ma and The Boston Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa, and a violin concerto written for Hilary Hahn which was premiered and recorded by Ms. Hahn with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra led by Hugh Wolff.
Collaborations are a central part of Mr. Meyer’s work. His longtime collaboration with fellow MacArthur Award recipient Chris Thile continued in 2014 with the release on Nonesuch Records a recording of all new original material by the two genre-bending artists, a follow up to their very successful 2008 CD/DVD on Nonesuch. Mr. Meyer and Mr. Thile embarked on a nationwide tour in Fall 2014, appearing in many of the major cities in the U.S. Mr. Meyer’s previous performing and recording collaborations include a duo with Béla Fleck; a quartet with Joshua Bell, Sam Bush, and Mike Marshall; a trio with Béla Fleck and Mike Marshall; and a trio with Yo-Yo Ma and Mark O’Connor. The latter collaborated for the 1996 Appalachia Waltz release which soared to the top of the charts and remained there for sixteen weeks. Appalachia Waltz toured extensively in the U.S., and the trio was featured both on the David Letterman Show and the televised 1997 Inaugural Gala. Joining together again in 2000, the trio toured Europe, Asia, and the U.S. extensively and recorded a follow-up recording to Appalachia Waltz, Appalachian Journey, which was honored with a Grammy Award. In the 2006-2007 season, Mr. Meyer premiered a piece for double bass and piano performed with Emanuel Ax. Mr. Meyer also performs with pianist Amy Dorfman, his longtime collaborator for solo recitals featuring both classical repertoire and his own compositions, Mike Marshall in duo concerts, and the trio with Béla Fleck and Zakir Hussain which has toured the U.S., Europe, and Asia together.
Mr. Meyer began studying bass at the age of five under the instruction of his father and continued further to study with Stuart Sankey. In 1994 he received the Avery Fisher Career Grant and in 2000 became the only bassist to receive the Avery Fisher Prize. Currently, he is Visiting Professor of Double Bass at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
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Joshua Roman
Cello
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Joshua Roman is a cello soloist and composer, hailed for his “effortlessly expressive tone… and playful zest for exploration” (The New York Times), as well as his “extraordinary technical and musical gifts” and “blend of precision and almost improvisatory freedom…that goes straight to the heart” (The San Francisco Chronicle). His genre-bending programs and wide-ranging collaborations have grown out of an “enthusiasm for musical evolution that is as contagious as his love for the classics” (The Seattle Times).
Committed to bringing classical music to new audiences, Roman opened the acclaimed 2017 TED Conference—and his performance of the complete Bach Cello Suites after the 2016 U.S. presidential election was the most-viewed event in the history of TED’s social channels, with nearly a million live viewers. Roman has collaborated with world-class artists across genres and disciplines, including Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, DJ Spooky, Tony-winner/MacArthur Genius Bill T. Jones, Grammy-winning East African vocalist Somi, and Tony-nominated actor Anna Deavere Smith.
As a soloist, Roman’s “exceptionally high quality of performances” (The Los Angeles Times) combine “the expressive control of Casals with the creative individuality and virtuoso flair of Hendrix himself” (Gramophone). He has performed with leading orchestras around the United States and the world, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, New World Symphony, Toronto Symphony, BBC Scottish, and Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra, and he was principal cellist of the Seattle Symphony from age 22 to 24.
Roman released the ambitious and deeply personal Immunity in October 2024 on Bright Shiny Things. The album—his first as a solo artist—is an intimate musical exploration of Roman’s life-altering experience of ongoing Long COVID, with music ranging from J. S. Bach to George Crumb to Caroline Shaw, as well as Roman’s own compositions. In an interview for Strings Magazine, Roman shared the inspiration behind the recording, stating that “Each piece on Immunity was chosen because it has been important to me in one way or another on my current health journey with Long COVID, and together they make a statement about this moment both personally and artistically.” Since the album’s release, he has continued raising awareness of the condition and the importance of finding strength in vulnerability through performances and speaking engagements in the U.S. and abroad. These engagements have included residencies at Stanford University and Yale University; participation in the Aspen Ideas Festival and the Oslo Freedom Forum; and well-being concerts at Carnegie Hall. Roman is set to launch a second musical project in spring 2026, building on the success and impact of Immunity.
Roman’s 2025-26 season features the continuation of his Immunity project, both on tour and with Long COVID clinics throughout the East Coast in December 2025; as well as ongoing trio performances with violinist Tessa Lark and double bassist Edgar Meyer in festivals and recital halls across the U.S. Additional highlights of the 2025-26 season include concerto appearances with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, New York Youth Symphony, Heartland Festival Orchestra, South Bend Symphony Orchestra, and Bellingham Symphony Orchestra.
Roman has long been a leader and innovator in his use of digital and social media, with projects like his Popper Etude videos amassing over two million views. His solo performance with the YouTube Symphony at Carnegie Hall was viewed by 33 million people across almost 200 countries, with Yo-Yo Ma introducing him as “one of the great exemplars of the ideal 21st century musician.”
As a composer, Roman has been commissioned by Music Academy of the West, Illinois Philharmonic, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, San Francisco Girls Chorus, Grace Cathedral, and more, and he has written for the JACK Quartet, violinist Vadim Gluzman, and conductor David Danzmayr. Equally accomplished as an interpreter of the music of other contemporary composers, Roman has premiered works by Mason Bates, Reena Esmail, Timo Andres, Gabriela Lena Frank, Aaron Jay Kernis, Lisa Bielawa, and others. Roman also curated a forward-looking chamber music series at Town Hall in Seattle for fifteen years, presenting artists like Jennifer Koh, JACK Quartet, Sō Percussion, and more.
A native of Oklahoma City, Roman began playing the cello at the age of three on a quarter-size instrument, and gave his first public recital at age ten. He went on to pursue his musical studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying with Richard Aaron and Desmond Hoebig, former principal cellist of the Cleveland Orchestra. Roman plays an 1830 Giovanni Francesco Pressenda on a generous loan through The Stradivari Society of Chicago.