Nancy Ives, Cello

Nancy Ives has been the Principal Cello of the Oregon Symphony since October 2000. In April of 2006, she was featured in Don Quixote, and performed the Kabelevsky Cello Concerto No. 2 with the Oregon Symphony in 2002, and most recently played Tchaikovsky "Pezzo Capriccioso" with the orchestra. Her formal education culminated in a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Manhattan School of Music in 1991, after having received a Bachelor of Music from the University of Kansas.While living in New York City, her diverse activities as soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player included performances with new music groups such as NorthSouth Consonance and Musicians Accord, being principal cello of the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra and American Chamber Opera Company, presenting recitals at festivals such as the Apollo Muses Festival and Friends of he Arts Beethoven Festival, and playing in a string quartet with violist Emanuel Vardi. She appeared with Laurie Anderson and Gal Costa an the BAM Next Wave Festival, with Nan Vasconcelos at The Knitting Factory and at Merkin Hall, recorded with rock star Lenny Kravitz, and can be heard on soundtracks for the PBS series Nature and for the Smithsonian. During several years on tour with Phantom of the Opera, she performed a comedy routine about the cello in AIDS benefits across the country.

Ives is a member of fEARnoMUSIC and debuted with Chamber Music Northwest in the summer of 2005, and has joined the string principals of the Oregon Symphony in forming the Oregon Symphony String Quartet. Appearances have included quartet performances for Friends of Chamber Music, "New Music at Willamette," and "Music in Context." She has been Principal Cello at the Cascade Music Festival, where she played the Beethoven Triple Concerto with Ron Blessinger and Stewart Goodyear in 2004, and has frequently been a member of the resident ensemble of the Ernest Bloch Festival Composers' Symposium. She performed the Dvorak Cello Concerto with the Vancouver (WA) Symphony in 2009 and filled in at the last minute on that concerto for an ailing soloist in 2001 with the Clark College Orchestra. She has been a guest artist with 45th Parallel and Third Angle Ensemble, has performed with jazz fiddler Hollis Taylor on several occasions, and had the privilege of performing with Janos Starker in Lincoln Hall (Portland) in February of 2001. Also a composer, Nancy is an active teacher, and is a past president of the Oregon Cello Society and has served on the Board of Directors of the Oregon Symphony.