Travels with My Cello Documentary Screening

Elisa Kohanski

Elisa Kohanski enjoys a diverse career as soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player, while championing unique artistic collaborations. She has performed on stage with Yo Yo Ma, the Miami String Quartet, Olivia Newton John, Robert Shaw, Gustavo Dudamel, John Williams, Harry Connick, Jr., and in performance venues around the world including Carnegie Hall; Royal Albert Hall; Schlossfestspiele in Heidelberg; and Stefaniensaal in Graz, Austria. Some of her less traditional concert spaces have included a basketball court in rural Mexico; a township bar in Cape Town, South Africa; and in Pittsburgh pop ups at locations including GNC, Target, Lowe’s, in front of a graffiti mural and a construction site. Elisa is Principal Cellist of Pittsburgh Ballet and Wheeling Symphony, a member of Pittsburgh Opera, performs regularly with Pittsburgh Symphony, Taconic Music and with many other groups. A founding member of Trio Nova Mundi and IonSound Project, Elisa’s recordings include TNM’s Canticum; IonSound’s CD by Jeremy Beck, and Daphne Alderson’s Joan of Arc. Her newest CD, IonSound Project’s Inspired By… is almost finished! She is adjunct faculty at Grove City and Washington and Jefferson Colleges and has taught and performed in festivals around Italy, Germany, Austria and Bosnia. Most recently she was instrumental in starting a small chamber music festival, Taconic International, in Padua, Italy. She earned her Bachelor’s from the Eastman School of Music and her Master’s from Carnegie Mellon University. A native Rhode Islander, Elisa returns home to perform with other native Rhode Islanders for the Music on the Hill festival. Elisa has performed on all seven continents, most uniquely on an Arctic iceberg in Antarctica for an audience of people and penguins and most recently in Australia!