Pei-An Chao has been a full time member of the Columbus Symphony since 2000. She held the position of acting Assistant Principal Cello in the 2009-10 and 2015-16 seasons and was featured as a soloist in 2011. Prior to joining the CSO, Ms. Chao spent two years with the New World Symphony in Miami, Florida. She has a bachelor's degree from Manhattan School of Music and a master's degree from San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she was the concerto competition winner and graduated with distinction. Ms. Chao grew up in Taiwan and New York City. She began playing the piano at 4, cello at 9. She studied both instruments throughout her musical training. Ms. Chao has appeared in prestigious festivals such as Tanglewood, Kent/Blossom, Sarasota, Pacific, Spoleto and Colorado. She performs chamber music regularly and coaches Columbus area youth orchestras. She held teaching positions at Otterbein College, Ohio Wesleyan and Ohio University.

Ms. Chao performs on a Jean Baptiste Deshayes Salomon cello made in 1760 in Paris.

Mary Davis, hailed as “an unusually fine cellist,” currently performs with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and is active as a recitalist and chamber musician. Her interests and activities have ranged from baroque performance—as principal cellist and soloist with the Columbus Bach Ensemble—to contemporary music, including premieres of many works and dedications of new pieces. Mary was featured as soloist in the Dayton Philharmonic’s recording of William Bolcom’s “Daedalus” from Inventing Flight, and her playing and arrangements can be heard on Lyrica’s disk, A Crystal Spring. She holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory, the College-Conservatory of the University of Cincinnati, and The Ohio State University and has taught cello at Wright State University, Cedarville University, OSU, and currently at Ohio Wesleyan University. Mary teaches cello privately in Clintonville; two of her students have served as All State principal cello in recent years, and some of her earliest Columbus students now have their own thriving studios. She attends dog park religiously and enjoys yoga, cycling, knitting and Argentine Tango.

Dr. Davis performs on a Lawrence Furse cello made in 1987 in Salt Lake City.

Cora Kuyvenhoven is assistant principal cellist of ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, and adjunct cello professor and co-director of chamber music at Denison University. Cora has been soloist with Westerville Symphony, Kalistos, Welsh Hills Symphony, Plymouth Symphony, National Arts Chamber Orchestra, and the Windsor Symphony. The Windsor Star heralded her Haydn D Major performance as expressing a great “joie de vivre.” As a member of the Toronto Symphony (1990-1997) she recorded and broadcast extensively, and toured in Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America. Cora obtained her A.R.C.T. licentiate from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto with first class honours, studied at the Banff School of Fine Arts, and was a national finalist in the Canadian Music Competition. She received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee where she performed in the Advendo String Trio, under the tutelage of the Fine Arts Quartet. Cora received a post master’s degree at University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Her DMA is from the University of Iowa (2000) where she was the recipient of the Iowa Performance Fellowship, and the Peltzer Award. Cora enjoys dancing Zumba and hiking. For upcoming concerts and events please go to: http://ckuyvenhoven.blogspot.com/

Dr. Kuyvenhoven performs on a Lockey Hill cello made in England in 1805.

Wendy Morton, cellist, is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she studied with Orlando Cole. She is currently the assistant principal cellist with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Morton has worked with many notable musicians including Gerard Poulet, Nobuko Imai, Josef Gingold, and Arnold Steinhardt and David Soyer of the Guarneri String Quartet. Ms. Morton was a founding member of the Carpe Diem String Quartet, which had the honor of performing with Yo Yo Ma in the Ohio Theatre in 2008. Her years playing with Carpe Diem include 3 CDs of music by the late romantic Russian composer Sergey Taneyev (1856-1915), and Quartet No. 1 of gifted American composer, Jonathon Leshnoff (b 1973) released by Naxos Records. Wendy was also a member of the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, the Honolulu Symphony and she performed with the Brandenburg Ensemble including performances in Avery Fisher Hall, NYC, and Symphony Hall, Boston, MA. She currently maintains a busy private teaching studio and chamber music performance schedule including a recent performance for the Sunday at Central Chamber Music series presented at the Columbus Museum of Art in January 2016.

Ms. Morton performs on a Gabbrielli cello made in Florence, Italy in 1764.