David Olson

David Olson, from Storrs, Connecticut, is a performer and teacher in the Greater Houston area. Mr. Olson received his Master’s degree from Rice University Shepherd School of Music as a cello student of Desmond Hoebig. While at Rice he was a recipient of the Michael P. Hammond Preparatory Program Scholarship and as Brown Scholar taught in the Preparatory Chamber Program. Mr. Olson earned his Bachelor’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Stephen Geber. As a first-prize winner of the Windham Regional Arts Council Competition, Mr. Olson has performed as a soloist with the Connecticut Youth Symphony, the Willimantic Philharmonic, and the Seven Hills Symphony. Mr. Olson is an avid chamber musician and has performed extensively as the cellist of the Kamila, Thesiger, and Zeitlin String Quartets. With these quartets, he has participated in the Robert Mann Quartet Institute, the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, and has worked with members of the Juilliard, American, Shanghai, Deadalus, Cassals, and Muir String Quartets and the Albers Trio. Mr. Olson has also traveled to Abu Dhabi as a guest artist as part of the “Musical Pollen” program where he performed in a piano trio and was a guest artist for a masterclass series. In the summer of 2018 Mr. Olson spent 7 weeks at the Aspen Music Festival Center for Advanced Quartet Studies as part of the Kamila Quartet performing and coaching with the Pacifica, Escher, American, and Jupiter Quartets as well as Donald Weilerstein, James Dunham, and Sylvia Rosenberg. Mr. Olson performs regularly as a cellist in the Kinetic Ensemble, an artist-led chamber ensemble that is committed to showcasing diverse, under represented, and newly composed classical music through flexible chamber and orchestral ensemble formats. This July Mr. Olson is excited to join the YOSAL program as their new Cello/Bass teaching artist.