Robert deMaine

From an American family of French-Canadian descent (father), and Polish/French (mother), deMaine began learning cello at age 4 with his sister, Mary, then with teachers Lowell Russell, Jane Smith, Kari Caldwell, and Rose Rahal (his piano, solfège, music theory, and composition teacher) in his hometown of Oklahoma City.

DeMaine debuted at age 12 with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, performing Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme. The following year, he met the American cellist and teacher Leonard Rose at the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina, where Rose invited deMaine to become his student. DeMaine was accepted at the Juilliard School in New York City and also the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, but his parents decided that he should finish his schooling back home.

After graduating high school in 1988, DeMaine received full scholarships to study at the Eastman School of Music and Yale University. Additional studies were undertaken at the Aspen Music Festival, Marlboro Music School and Festival, Meadowmount School of Music, Music Academy of the West, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Gregor Piatigorsky Seminar at the University of Southern California, and briefly at the Kronberg Academy in Germany. His many teachers and mentors included Steven Doane, Claude Frank, Felix Galimir, Luis Garcia-Renart, Bernard Greenhouse, Lynn Harrell, Richard Kapuscinski, Stephen Kates, Paul Katz, Ronald Leonard, Jerome Lowenthal, Aldo Parisot, Boris Pergamenschikow, Joseph Silverstein, David Soyer, János Starker, and Arthur Winograd.

He counts the great French cellist, Pierre Fournier, whom he never met in person, as his greatest musical influence.

The recipient of many significant national and international honors and awards, Robert deMaine was named the winner of the fifth Irving M. Klein International Competition for Strings in San Francisco,[1] the first cellist to win this important prize.

In 2012, Robert deMaine was named Principal Cellist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic by Music Director Gustavo Dudamel. DeMaine was Principal Cellist of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra from 2002-2012, hired by then-Music Director, Neeme Järvi.[2] While in his early twenties studying at Yale University, deMaine served as Principal Cellist of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.

Robert deMaine has taught music privately from the age of 14. At 19, deMaine first became an Assistant to Steven Doane, and later Paul Katz, at the Eastman School of Music. He went on to teach at the Hartford Conservatory from 1993-2002, Wayne State University Department of Music in Detroit (2002-2009), University of Michigan (2003-2004), and The Colburn School in Los Angeles (2015-present). DeMaine has also served on the faculties of the National Orchestral Institute (2004-present), Music Academy of the West (2014-17), Montecito Music Festival (2014-present), Audition/Perform in Chichester, United Kingdom (2018-present), and the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy (2019-present). He has presented masterclasses at many important music schools worldwide, and was featured artist-faculty at both the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival in Los Angeles (2016), and the Lev Aronson Cello Festival in Dallas (2017).

Robert deMaine has served as Artistic Director of Metro Detroit’s “Classical Brunch” from 2010-2015, and Classical American Homes Chamber Music/Music at Millford (2014-present). He maintains an active solo, chamber music, and recording career around his duties at the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

As soloist with orchestra, he has collaborated with many renowned conductors, including Walter Hendl, John Williams, Gustavo Dudamel, Joseph Silverstein, Nicholas McGegan, Leonard Slatkin, Alexander Schneider, Neeme Järvi, Zubin Mehta, Mark Wigglesworth, Peter Oundjian, Andrew Constantine, Arild Remmereit, Victor Yampolsky, Jun Märkl, Grant Gershon, Tibor Józef Pusztai, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, and Scott Yoo.

Robert deMaine plays on instruments made by Antonio Stradivari, the 'General Kyd, ex-Leo Stern,' Cremona, dating from 1684 (in the collection of the Los Angeles Philharmonic), and Jean Baptiste Vuillaume, Paris, 1841. His bow collection includes examples by François Tourte, Dominique Peccatte, Nicolaus Kittel, and Étienne Pajeot.

Several distinguished contemporary composers have written large-scale works for DeMaine, including Jeremy Cavaterra (Cello Concerto), Thomas Flaherty (Cello Concerto), Joel Eric Suben (Cello Concerto), and Christopher Theofanidis (“Summer Verses” for Violin and Cello, commissioned by the Seattle Chamber Music Festival for violinist James Ehnes and deMaine).

Robert DeMaine is himself a composer, having written many works which include two concerti and 12 Études-Caprices.[3]

• Official website