Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra Homepage

Diane Chaplin, Cello

Diane Chaplin moved from New York City to Portland, in 2009. Before taking up residence on the west coast, she spent 21 years as the cellist of the Colorado Quartet and with them had an international career which took her around the globe. The Quartet was the first all-female string quartet to perform the complete Beethoven Quartet cycle in both North America and Europe and their recordings of these works can be heard on the Parnassus label. Other award-winning discs are available on the Parnassus, Mode and Albany labels.

Diane has held teaching positions at many prestigious institutions of higher learning, including Bard College, Oberlin College-Conservatory and Swarthmore College and has given master classes at the Eastman School of Music, Northwestern University, Indiana University, Cleveland Institute of Music, Cincinnati Conservatory, Stanford University and the Banff Centre. As a member of the Colorado Quartet, she was visiting chamber music faculty at Yale University in 2009. Diane is also an inspiring teacher of young students, and trained hundreds of cellists during a two-decade tenure at the Allen-Stevenson School in Manhattan.

Diane holds a BFA degree from the California Institute of the Arts, where she was a student of Cesare Pascarella, and a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Harvey Shapiro. She received a Special Prize from the International Cello Competition in Vi�a del Mar, Chile, and a Certificate from the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, and has appeared in solo concerts throughout the United States and Europe. She has performed several times with Mikhail Baryshnikov, and has often appeared in cameo performances with the Flying Karamazov Brothers.

In addition to her many solo and chamber music performances, Diane directs and conducts the Oregon Pro Arte Youth Chamber Orchestra and Pro Arte Conservatory Strings and is Program Coordinator for Chamber Music Camp of Portland, where she also conducts. She performs both in Portland and around the U.S. as a member of the Portland Cello Project, is solo cellist and co-director of Northwest New Music, and maintains a large private cello teaching studio. She is an ardent yoga practitioner and certified yoga instructor and has taught through Street Yoga, a dedicated group that brings yoga to homeless and at-risk youth.

Diane is an eclectic musician, with interests that range from the traditional great works of the western musical canon to ... things that are not. Diane is a member of the Portland Cello Project, and performs on electric porta-cello with indie-pop band Ocean Age. A prolific arranger and composer, she produces many reworkings of chamber music repertoire and has two published volumes of student cello music, Cello Champs. Diane is an espresso snob, and drinks Portland-roasted Badbeard's Deep Cello Espresso.