Author: Natasha Farney
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American cellist, Natasha Farny made her concerto debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at 17, and the following year, won two more Boston-based concerto competitions, with performances of the Dvorak Concerto. She studied at the Curtis Institute of Music and Yale College during her undergraduate years. After completing her master’s and doctoral degrees at the Eastman School of Music and at the Juilliard School, she received a fellowship at the Leipzig Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy”. While studying at Juilliard, Ms. Farny was a concerto winner, where she performed Dutilleux’s Tout un Monde Lointain with Robert Spano. More recent performances have included concertos with the Buffalo Philharmonic, Abilene Philharmonic, and the Greeley Symphony Orchestra, as well as with the Longwood (Boston).
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Abroad, Ms. Farny performed at the International Dvorak Society American Spring Festival in the Czech Republic in 2011, and she toured Brazil, giving concerts of two programs in four capital cities in 2013. Nationally, she played for audiences in New York City at the Bargemusic “Here and Now” series, at Chicago public radio “Live from WFMT”, Rochester NY public radio “Live from Hochstein”, and at recital series in Rhode Island, North Carolina, Illinois, Ohio, and Washington State. Ms. Farny was a 2012 winner of the American Composers Forum “Encore Grant.” She learned to play the Theremin cello for a performance project of the complete works of Edgard Varèse, alongside the Asko/Schoenberg Ensemble, the London Sinfonietta, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. Her performances with these groups of Varèse’s rarely heard Ecuatorial were held at the Holland Festival (Amsterdam), Festival d’Automne (Paris), the Southbank Centre (London), and at the Lincoln Center Festival in New York City. Ms. Farny frequently performs with Chicago pianist, Kuang-Hao Huang and also with the members of her trio, ANA. In residence at Fredonia, the soprano-cello-piano collaboration champions the works of living composers. They have performed in Erie, Buffalo, Rochester and Boston, reaching across the disciplines to include visual art and dance.
In addition to her cello studio at Fredonia, Ms. Farny oversees the Fredonia cello choir and coordinates the string chamber music program. She has been honored at Fredonia with several awards, including grants from the Faculty Student Association and the United University Professions, as well as the Hagan Young Scholar Artist Award for outstanding artistic performance. In 2012, Ms. Farny participated in an international teaching exchange, which resulted in her giving lessons and classes at the Musikgymnasium Schloss Belvedere and the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar, Germany. She has given numerous masterclasses and been appointed to summer music festivals in Sewanee, TN, Boulder, CO, Anchorage, AK, and Sweden, ME.
By Natasha Farney December 5, 2013
