Thomas Mesa

Cuban-American cellist Thomas Mesa is quickly becoming established as one of the most charismatic and versatile performers of his generation. A winner of Astral’s 2017 National Auditions, he was also the top prizewinner at the Sphinx Competition (2016), the Thaviu Competition for String Performance (2013), and the Alhambra Orchestra Concerto Competition (2006). Upcoming, he performs as concerto soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic at The Hollywood Bowl, Erie Chamber Orchestra, Firelands Symphony, and the Elgin Symphony Orchestra.

Recent and upcoming recital engagements include those for the Mainly Mozart Festival, Nantucket Musical Arts Society, Bargemusic, Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series, Columbia University, Carnegie Hall, the Supreme Court of the United States, the Heifetz Institute, Meadowmount School of Music, New York City’s “Strad for Lunch” series, the International Beethoven Project, and the Perlman Music Program’s Alumni Recital, as well as for universities across the U.S.

An enthusiastic interpreter of music for choir and cello, Mr. Mesa was a featured instrumentalist on The Crossing’s 2017 Grammy-nominated album Bonhoeffer. Led by Donald Nally, the multi-award-winning choir invited Mr. Mesa for return solo engagements at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Longwood Gardens, the Winter Garden (broadcast on WNYC), and New York’s Theological Seminary. He has also collaborated with The Crossing for the U.S. premiere of Astralis, for choir and solo cello, by Wolfgang Rihm. Mr. Mesa performs as soloist in a choral performance at the Washington National Cathedral in March 2018.

As a chamber musician, Mr. Mesa has toured internationally with Itzhak Perlman, and is a member of the St. Petersburg Piano Quartet. The quartet has played to sold-out audiences at Bargemusic, Doheny Mansion, Kohl Mansion, Music Mountain, and the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach. He has also collaborated with such artists as Roger Tapping, Paul Katz, Andres Diaz, and Joseph Silverstein.

Mr. Mesa has been principal cellist for the Northwestern Symphony Orchestra and its Contemporary Music Ensemble. He has performed under the batons of James Levine, Tan Dun, David Afkham, Alan Gilbert, James Conlon, Nicholas McGegan, Ludovic Morlot, Franz Welser-Most, Joel Sachs, Benjamin Zander, Victor Yampolsky, Donald Nally, and Timothy J. Robblee.

Mr. Mesa did not grow up playing the cello, and therefore felt he needed to learn to play quickly, in order to catch up to his peers. Thus, he has become in-demand as a teaching artist, for his innate ability to connect with students and to teach them to teach themselves. He has taught masterclasses at Northwestern University, DePaul University, U.C. Berkeley, University of Nevada–Las Vegas, University of Miami, Roosevelt University, and the Meadowmount School of Music, and has held faculty positions at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, Montecito International Music Festival, St. Petersburg International Music Academy, the Mozart Academy at John Jay College, and the Manhattan School of Music, where he currently teaches through the Long Distance Learning Program.

Mr. Mesa is a graduate of The Juilliard School and Northwestern University, where he was a Richard and Helen Thomas Fellow and received Graduate Program Honors for extraordinary contributions to the String Department. Currently, he is a doctoral candidate at the Manhattan School of Music, where he studies with Julia Lichten. His principal teachers have been Timothy Eddy, Hans Jorgen Jensen, Mark Churchill, Ross Harbaugh, and Wells Cunningham.

Mr. Mesa plays a Richard Tobin cello, dated 1820.

Artist biography from 2019