Cellist Iona Batchelder is a passionate artist and teacher who is deeply committed to fostering a genuine environment of music-making for performers, audiences, and students of all ages.
Recent collaborations include a performance with actor Rainn Wilson at the New York Times Climate Forward Event, an appointment as guest lecturer of cello at the University of California, Irvine, and recital appearances on Lincoln Center’s The Art of Wellbeing series. Ms. Batchelder is a section cellist in the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and has performed with the New York City Ballet, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the American Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Lumos, and the New York Classical Players.
Ms. Batchelder was a founding member of the Unison Quartet, which won an Honorary Mention award at the 2021 Bartók World Competition in Budapest, Hungary. She has performed at several festivals including Kneisel Hall, the Perlman Music Program, and the Aspen Music Festival. Always curious to explore different genres and styles of music, Ms. Batchelder has made main stage appearances with a wide variety of artists including Andrea Bocelli, Jon Batiste, Sofia Carson, and Judy Collins, and has also participated in score recording work on Netflix’s “Green Eggs and Ham.”
In January 2023, Ms. Batchelder embarked on a three-concert tour of Texas as the featured soloist with the Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra, performing Saint-Säens’ first cello concerto in Arlington, Garland, and Irving. She has performed as principal cellist under the batons of Marin Alsop, James Conlon, John Adams, Jeffrey Milarsky, and Joseph Colaneri at halls including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Royce Hall. Ms. Batchelder has also been Assistant Principal Cellist of the American Youth Symphony.
Image credit: New York Classical Players © Yo Han Yeom
Passionate about community outreach and education, Ms. Batchelder was a Gluck community service fellow for four years at Juilliard. Through the program, she brought interdisciplinary performances to hospital rooms, nursing homes, and psychiatric wards throughout New York City. In her third year at Juilliard, she developed a curated educational program for the half hour KidZone TV program at Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital as a part of Music as Medicine.
Ms. Batchelder was a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship at The Juilliard School, where she graduated with her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees, both under the tutelage of Darrett Adkins, and a Juilliard Career Advancement Fellowship. She studied chamber music with artists including Joel Smirnoff, Roger Tapping, Joel Krosnick, Daniel Druckman, and Joseph Kalichstein. Deeply committed to educating the next generation, Ms. Batchelder maintains a private studio in New York City and teaches at Suzuki on the Island in Manhasset, NY.