Allison Eldredge
In 1989, cellist Allison Eldredge was awarded the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant, a grant given to musicians of outstanding ability. In the same year, Musical America named Ms. Eldredge “Young Artist of the Year.” In 1991, conductor Daniel Barenboim invited her to perform the Elgar concerto with the Chicago Symphony for the first time with him since performing it with his late wife, the great cellist Jacqueline Du Pre, who had brought this concerto to fame. He, also, loaned her Du Pre’s Sergiu Peresson cello. Following the performances, Ms. Eldredge was heralded as “a cellist afraid of nothing” by the Chicago Sun Times and “a musician of remarkable gifts” by the Chicago Tribune. She has since been performing in the premier concert halls of North America, Europe, Israel, Latin America, and the Far East, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall and the 92nd St. Y, the Kennedy Center, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, Royal Concertgebouw Hall in Amsterdam, Moscow Grand Hall, and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall.
As soloist, Allison Eldredge has performed with the world's leading orchestras, including London's Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields and Royal Philharmonic, the Moscow Virtuosi, the Berlin Symphony, the Montreal Symphony, the Hague Philharmonic, the Netherlands Symphony, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Royal Flanders Philharmonic, the China National Symphony, Yomiuri Symphony, Tokyo Metroplitan. In America, she performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Boston Pops, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and many others. She has collaborated with conductors Zubin Mehta, Andre Previn, Charles Dutoit, Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, Krzysztof Penderecki, Yevgeny Svetlanov, Hans Vonk, Sergiu Commissiona, Joseph Silverstein, Keith Lockhart, Mark Elder, JoAnn Falletta, Stanislaw Skrowacewski, Eiji Oue, Jorge Mester, and Jaap van Sweden among others.
In recital, Ms. Eldredge has toured the world receiving critical acclaim. Some of the major cities visited include London, New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland, Tokyo, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Amsterdam.
Following Ms. Eldredge’s release of Saint-Saens and Lalo concerti with the Royal Philharmonic and conductor Hans Vonk, the American Record Guide wrote, “Hers is virtuosity wholly at the service of the music.” Her discography includes releases in 2010 of Haydn and Elgar concerti available on iTunes for Arizona University Records and Denon Essentials. Additionally, her recordings can be heard on Denon Records, Pony Canyon Classics, BMG, and Centaur Records.
In other areas of interest, Ms. Eldredge is Artistic Director of the Killington Music Festival in Vermont. She is a member of the Boston Trio and serves on the faculty of Harvard University and the New England Conservatory Preparatory School.