Joshua Roman

Joshua Roman is a cello soloist and composer whose commitment to bringing classical music to new audiences has resulted in genre-bending programs and wide-ranging collaborations.

Committed to bringing Classical music to new audiences, Roman opened the 2017 TED Conference, and his performance of the complete Bach Solo Cello Suites after the 2016 U.S. presidential election was the most-viewed event in the history of TED’s social channels at the time, with nearly one million live viewers. Roman has collaborated with award-winning artists across genres and disciplines, including Edgar Meyer, DJ Spooky, Bill T. Jones, vocalist Somi, and actor and playwright Anna Deavere Smith. His solo performance with the YouTube Symphony at Carnegie Hall was viewed by 33 million people across nearly 200 countries, with Yo-Yo Ma introducing him as “one of the great exemplars of the ideal 21st-century musician.”

As a soloist, Roman has performed with leading orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, New World Symphony, Toronto Symphony, BBC Scottish, and Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra. And he was principal cellist at Seattle Symphony from age 22 to 24.

As a composer, Roman has been commissioned by Music Academy of the West, Illinois Philharmonic, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, Grace Cathedral, and more, and he has written for the JACK Quartet, violinist Vadim Gluzman, and conductor David Danzmayr. Equally accomplished as an interpreter of the music of other contemporary composers, Roman has premiered works by Mason Bates, Reena Esmail, Timo Andres, Gabriela Lena Frank, Aaron Jay Kernis, Lisa Bielawa, and others.

A native of Oklahoma City, Roman studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Richard Aaron and Desmond Hoebig, and is grateful for the loan of an 1899 cello by Giulio Degani of Venice.