Praised byThe New York Times as an “artist who makes one hang on every note,” American virtuoso cellist ROBERT deMAINE has distinguished himself as one of the finest and most versatile musicians of his generation, having performed worldwide to critical acclaim from Carnegie Hall to the Teatro Colón, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and the Berlin Philharmonie.  He joins the Los Angeles Philharmonic this month as Principal Cello.

A first-prizewinner in many national and international competitions, deMaine became, in 1990, the first cellist ever to win the Grand Prize at San Francisco’s Irving M. Klein International Competition for Strings. As soloist, he has collaborated with many distinguished conductors, including Neeme Järvi, Peter Oundjian, Joseph Silverstein, and Leonard Slatkin, and has performed virtually all of the major cello concerto repertoire with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, where he served as Principal Cellist since 2002. deMaine has also served as a guest principal in the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra (Norway). 

Robert deMaine’s principal teachers include Leonard Rose, Steven Doane, Paul Katz, Aldo Parisot, Luis Garcia-Renart, and Felix Galimir, and he counts among his chamber-music partners violinists James Ehnes, Hilary Hahn, Ani and Ida Kavafian, and pianists Emanuel Ax, Orion Weiss, and Yefim Bronfman. He has made regular appearances at the international music festivals of Marlboro, Aspen, Heidelberg, San Miguel de Allende, Montréal, and Seattle, and is also the cellist of the highly acclaimed Ehnes Quartet.

Also a composer, Robert deMaine has written many works for the cello, including Twelve Etudes-Caprices, which he performs regularly. Several important composers have written large-scale works for him, including Chris Theofanidis, Joel Eric Suben, and Kenneth Fuchs.  


As a soloist and chamber musician, deMaine has recorded for the Chandos, Naxos, and Onyx labels, and has four new releases coming out in the 2013/14 season: the Haydn Cello Concertos with the Moravian Philharmonic (Cambria Records), the complete works for piano and cello by Beethoven with pianist Peter Takács (Cambria), a recital disc with pianist Andrew Armstrong (Cambria), and the John Williams Cello Concerto with Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra on Naxos.

From a military and musical family of French and Polish descent, deMaine studied at the Juilliard School, the Eastman School of Music, the University of Southern California, Yale University, and the Kronberg Academy in Germany.  For more information, please visit robertdemaine.com.