Elena Ariza
Cellist Elena Ariza is rapidly establishing herself as one of today’s most creative and community-driven cellists. An avid chamber musician, she has performed alongside luminaries such as Itzhak Perlman, Steven Tenenbom, Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, the Cassatt Quartet, and members of the Brentano Quartet. Festivals she has attended include Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia’s Steans Institute, and the Perlman Music Program. She has had the privilege of performing for esteemed musicians such as Colin Carr, David Finckel, Clive Greensmith, Frans Helmerson, Gary Hoffman, Paul Katz, Ralph Kirshbaum, Philippe Muller, and Marcy Rosen. She has been featured on Yo-Yo Ma’s Music Art Life project and NPR’s From the Top.
A fierce advocate for the music of today, Elena has worked with and showcased compositions by Pulitzer Prize winner Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, and premiered works by Anne Qian Wang and Hiroya Miura. Passionate about community activism, she has organized fundraiser concerts for the 2011 Japanese tsunami, the 2021 Haitian earthquake, and those affected by the war in Ukraine. She has also partnered with Project: Music Heals Us to perform for and teach music in jail facilities in Santa Clara, Santa Clarita, Sonoma County, and on Rikers Island.
Based in New York City, Elena is a proud recipient of the C. V. Starr Doctoral Fellowship at The Juilliard School, serving as teaching assistant for Astrid Schween. She previously received her Artist Diploma from Juilliard and her Bachelor of Arts degree at Columbia University majoring in computer science as part of the Columbia-Juilliard Exchange Program. Her former teachers and mentors include Richard Aaron, Joel Krosnick, Ronald Leonard, Sieun Lin, Astrid Schween, and Eric Sung.
As part of her fellowship with Ensemble Connect, Elena teaches at PS 58 The Carroll School in Brooklyn.
