The American cellist, Phoebe Carrai, earned her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees at the New England Conservatory of Music, studied and played early music with Laurence Lesser. Upon graduating in 1979, she was awarded a Beebe foundation grant and undertook post Graduate studies in Historical Performance Practice with Nikolaus Harnoncourt at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.
In 1983, Phoebe Carrai joined the chamber music ensemble Musica Antiqua Köln and worked with them for the next ten years, touring and teaching in the USA, Scandinavia, Asia, and Australia. Now she lives in the USA and performs with the Arcadian Academy and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (Director: Nicholas McGegan); Ensemble Arion (Director: Claire Guimond), Les Musiciens du Louvre (Director: Marc Minkowski), Handel and Haydn Society (Director: Grant Llewellyn), Concert Royal, Bach Chamber Soloists, and other national and international groups. She has also performed with the Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra. She performs internationally as a soloist, in chamber ensembles. Among her chamber music partners are the harpsichordist Arthur Haas and the recorder player Marion Verbruggen. She is also a founding member of the Van Swieten Quartet, and Director of the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra. She also works with the Greater Boston Youth Symphony.
During her period with Musica Antiqua Köln, Phoebe Carrai taught at the Hilversum Conservatory of the Amsterdam School of the Arts in the Netherlands. She presently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts where she teaches at the Longy School of Music and is co-director of Longy's International Baroque Institute. Additionally, she teaches at the University of the Arts in Berlin, Germany, St. Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts, and in the fall of 2009 joined the faculty of the Juilliard School of Music in New York. She is also a founding member and co-director of the International Baroque Institute at Longy School of Music. She has given master-classes in Asia, North America, and Europe.
Phoebe Carrai has numerous widely acclaimed recordings with Jordi Savall, Jaap Schröder, René Jacobs, etc. on Aetma, Aetma, Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Harmonia Mundi Germany, Telarc and BMG. Both her recordings of the J.S. Bach’s Solo Cello Suites (BWV 1007-1012) and the Kummer Duos can be found on the Avie label.
Phoebe Carrai performs on an anonymous Italian cello from c1690. |