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The American cellist, Jennifer Morsches, spent her formative years in Alexandria, Virginia, studying cello with David Hardy under the auspices of the scholarship Fellowship and Apprenticeship Programs of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. During the summer months she participated in orchestral and chamber music courses at the New England Music Camp, Eastern Music Festival and the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music in New Hampshire. She has been invited as a guest artist and coach at Apple Hill since 2002. She pursued a liberal arts education at Smith College, where she graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa and First Group Scholar with degrees in Music and German Literature. She was recipient of the Ernst Wallfisch Memorial Prize in music upon graduation in 1990. She was subsequently accepted into the studio of Timothy Eddy at the Mannes College of Music in New York City, where she received her Master's degree in 1995. She continued to study with Mr. Eddy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where she received her Doctorate of Musical Arts in 1995. During her post-graduate years, she was a Fellow at the Bach Aria Festival, the Quartet Program and the Tanglewood Music Center. She received regular chamber music coaching sessions with members of the Juilliard String Quartet, and legends Eugene Lehner, Louis Krasner, Felix Galimir, Julius Levine and Gilbert Kalish. Jennifer Morsches was awarded the C.D. Jackson Prize for outstanding merit and contribution at Tanglewood in 1994. That summer she was also invited to perform with Yo-Yo Ma as part of Wynton Marsalis' educational music videos, recorded by Sony, which have been aired on television worldwide. She was a member of the Cassatt String Quartet in New York City from 1995-1996.
A growing interest in historical instrument performance led Jennifer Morsches to London in 1996. Since then, she has been in great demand as both continuo cellist and chamber music collaborator in the UK as well as on the Continent. As principal cellist of the highly acclaimed Baroque ensemble Florilegium, with whom she has recorded award-winning discs for Channel Classics, she has toured extensively throughout the globe, performing in such venues as the Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw, Sydney Opera House, Konzerthaus Wien, Royal Festival Hall, the Royal Albert Hall. She has performed in Germany with Trio 1790 (CPO records) and in Australia, the Netherlands and Belgium with the quartet, Island (Centaur, Ars Records). She has been invited to perform, tour and record as guest principal cellist with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, the Academy of Ancient Music and the Kölner Akademie, among others. Additionally, she is a member of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées. She also played with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra under the baton of Ton Koopman in their recorded cycle of the J.S. Bach's Cantatas. She was invited on several occasions to be guest continuo at Chicago Opera Theater and at Het Nederlands Opera. She was invited to be the continuo cellist for Luc Bondy's production of Hercules at the Nederlands Opera. She also regularly performs in recital with counter-tenors Michael Chance and Derek Lee Ragin.
On modern cello, Jennifer Morsches participates in chamber music festivals such as El Paso Pro-Musica, Bravo! Colorado, Consonances Festival in Saint Nazaire, France, the Apple Hill Chamber Music Festival, the Barossa Music Festival in Australia, the Barossa Music Festival in Australia and the Flanders Festival in Belgium. She has given world premieres of chamber works by David Matthews, Ben-Zion Orgad, Luna Pearl Wolff and Michael Wolpe. Live radio performances include appearances on BBC Radio 3, BBC World Service, Deutschlandfunk, Klara (Belgium), CBC (Canada), ABC (Australia), WGBH-Boston, WQXR-New York and NPR in the USA.
Jennifer Morsches’ teaching credentials include cello master classes in the USA, Canada, Bolivia, the Czech Republic (Tynska schola) and chamber music coaching at the Royal College of Music in London and the Abbaye aux Dames in Saintes, France. |
