Cellist Dr. Laura J. Thielke is the Director of Chamber Music at Walnut Hill. Her cello teachers have included Leslie Parnas, Robert Sylvester, Steven Doane, Paul Katz, Gabor Reijto, and Laurence Lesser, and she has worked closely with the Cleveland, Muir, and American Quartets as well as such eminent musicians as Gyorgy Sebok, Gilbert Kalish, Walter Levin and Thomas Brandis. Since 1998 she has served as Assistant Director of the Music Department and Head of Chamber Music at the Walnut Hill School. As a former member of the Artaria Quartet of Bostonshe performed numerous concerts in Europe, Minneapolis, Chicago, Washington D.C., New York, and served as a faculty member at Viterbo College in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Prior to joining the Artaria Quartet, Dr. Thielke was a guest artist at several international music festivals, including the Robert Shaw Choral Institute and the Making Music Together Project under the direction of Sarah Caldwell, including three weeks of concerts at the Moscow State Conservatory.

Along with her involvement in chamber music, Dr. Thielke has also had extensive orchestral performing experience, having served as Principal Cello of the New American Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Fairfax and Maryland Symphony Orchestras. Dr. Thielke performs as a recitalist in the Boston area and also served for eight summers as Director of String Chamber Music and Cello Faculty at Boston University Tanglewood Institute. In recognition of her work with young artists, in 2002 Chamber Music America awarded her the nation’s highest award for chamber music teaching, the Kay Logan Award for Excellence in Chamber Music Education.

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