Cellist Eleanor Christman is an active soloist, chamber musician, and instructor. She is also a certified Laban Movement Analyist (LMA), and has presented her research on LMA for musicans in Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies Contemporary Applications by Colleen Wahl and at various national and international conferences.
Dr. Christman has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and as an orchestral musician throughout the United States, in Canada, and in France. She premiered Stephen Dembski's Suite for Solo Cello, and has worked with such composers as John Harbison, David Ludwig, and Grant Harville. She is currently a member of Sinfonia Salt Lake, Utopia Early Music, is co-founder of Great Basin Baroque, and is the principal cellist in the Idaho State Civic Symphony, with whom she was recently a soloist.
As a baroque cellist, Eleanor has appeared in several performances of Bach's St. John and St. Matthew passions, most recently with the Salt Lake Choral Artists. She is a member of Utopia Early Music and a founding member of Great Basin Baroque. She has also performed at the Idaho Bach Festival, in the University of Utah's Sundays @ 7 series, as an educator and performer with the Madison Bach Musicians, and she gave the North American premiere of C.P.E. Bach's recently discovered cantata Ich bin vergnügt in meinem Stande.
Dr. Christman has performed with orchestras across the country, including the Tallahassee Symphony, the Madison Symphony, the Green Bay Symphony, Ballet West, and the Utah Symphony. She is also a passionate chamber musician, and as a member of the Monarch Trio, in residence at Idaho State University, she has performed throughout the region, most notably as part of the community series of the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson, WY. She will also appear on the forthcoming recordings of Diana Livingston Friedley of Howard Boatwright's pieces for voice and chamber groups.
Currently, Eleanor is the Assistant Professor of Cello at Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho. Previously she was on faculty at Ripon College, Utah Valley University, Salt Lake Community College, and in the University of Utah's Preparatory Division. She has presented at the Idaho Music Educators Conference, the Laban Institute of Movement Studies 2018 International Conference, and on Radio West's Film Series (That One Moment). She teaches at the Summer Institute for Piano and Strings (at ISU) and the Teton Valley Chamber Music Festival, and previously taught at the University of Wisconsin's Summer Music Clinic and for Upward Bound at St. Norbert College. As a student, she attendedTafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, Jeune Orchestre Atlantique, the Indiana University String Academy, Encore School for Strings, and Meadowmount School of Music.
Former teachers include Uri Vardi, Emilio Colon, Helga Winold, Irene Sharpe, and Janet Anthony. She has also worked with Scott Tisdel, Christina Mahler, Hillary Metzger, Bonnie Hampton, Laurence Lesser, and members of the Emerson and Borodin quartets.
Eleanor performs on a Camillo Mandelli 'da Calco' cello, ca. 1928 and an anonymous German baroque cello, ca 1900.
