BIOGRAPHY

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Highly sought after cello duo, 2CellosKC, has been enjoying "spicing up" the classical music scene in Kansas City since 2018. Classically trained cellists Meredith McCook and Susie Yang met after winning highly prestigious positions playing with the Kansas City Symphony. Both Meredith and Susie received degrees from top music conservatories in New York City, have studied and performed with many world renowned musicians, and have played concerts all over the world. They love performing for audiences young and old, and their repertoire includes a mix of musical genres from Bach to Lady Gaga.

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SUSIE YANG, cello

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Susie Yang joined the Kansas City Symphony as Associate Principal Cello in 2010. She made her solo debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the age of 11. The performance was broadcast on PBS in Chicago and also the classical radio station, 98.7 FM. She has also appeared as a soloist with many orchestras in the greater Chicago area. As an avid chamber musician, she won a top prize in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and has participated in the Juilliard Quartet Seminar and the Beethoven Intensive Quartet Seminar at the New England Conservatory of Music. From 2006-2008, Susie was a fellow of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach and was a rotating principal under music director, Michael Tilson Thomas. After winning the concerto competition, she performed the Dvořák Cello Concerto with the New World Symphony in 2007. In April of 2016, Susie performed Dvorak Cello Concerto again, as a subscription soloist, with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. Susie has performed as a soloist, orchestral, and chamber musician at many music festivals, including Sarasota, Schleswig-Holstein, Music Academy of the West, Spoleto Italy and USA, Taos, and Yellow Barn. Originally from the northwest suburbs of Chicago, Susie holds degrees and numerous scholarship awards from The Juilliard School and New England Conservatory of Music, and her teachers include Andre Emelianoff and Laurence Lesser. She has a small private studio of cello students that she loves to teach and enjoys performing chamber music around the community.

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MEREDITH MCCOOK, cello

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Meredith McCook was born in Tyler, Texas, and joined the cello section of the Kansas City Symphony in 2015. Before playing in Kansas City, she played with the New World Symphony in Miami under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas for four years. She completed her Master’s degree at Manhattan School of Music in New York, where she studied with Alan Stepansky, and she received her Bachelor of Music from the University of North Texas studying with Eugene Osadchy. Meredith has performed at numerous festivals including Spoleto, Artosphere, Thy (Denmark), Tanglewood Music Center, Music Academy of the West, Canada’s Young Artists’ Programme, Kennedy Center, Domaine Forget, and Summit. She has been playing as Assistant Principal Cello with the Britt Summer Festival in Oregon since 2014. She has also studied with David Geber and Hans Jensen, and was a winner of the University of North Texas concerto competition, the Young Texas Artists competition, and Manhattan School of Music’s Fuchs chamber music competition.  When not playing with the Kansas City Symphony, Meredith also enjoys teaching, playing chamber music, playing in her cello duo (“2CellosKC”) with Kansas City Symphony Associate Principal Cellist Susie Yang, and playing with her two dogs – a Chesapeake Bay Retriever and a Sheepadoodle.

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EVENT TIMELINE:

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3:30 - 3:55 - Arrive and mingle

4:00 - Concert

5:00 - 6:00 - Performer meet & greet 

     

A wine reception with light hors d'oeuvres will be provided after the concert

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LOCATION:

 

A private Cedar Creek residence to be disclosed upon ticket purchase