James Jaffe

James Jaffe

James Jaffe (cello) began studying cello at age ten, and won our Concerto Competition at age 17 in 2005. By then he had also won the Sacramento Youth Symphony’s concerto competition and gone on tour with them to Brazil, was a member of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, and was named principal cellist in the California All-State Honor Orchestra for two years. He received a fellowship to perform at Kennedy Center in the National Symphony Orchestra’s Summer Music Institute.

James received his Bachelor of Music degree in 2010 at the University of Michigan, then began graduate study under Stephen Geber at the Cleveland Institute of Music. A committed chamber musician, he is a founding member of the Thalia Quartet, which presented over 20 outreach concerts as the Banff International String Quartet Competition’s Quartet in the Community. He is co-founder of the prizewinning San Andreas Trio and Trio Gestalt, he has also participated in the CIM Intensive Quartet Seminar and served as the cellist of the U-M School of Music Graduate Quartet. Mr. Jaffe has participated in the CIM Intensive Quartet Seminar, coached chamber groups at Ann Arbor’s PhoenixPhest, and served for three years as the Detroit Symphony Civic Orchestra’s Cello Mentor.

In his published bio, he credits Prometheus when noting the orchestras where he has been a soloist with, such as CityMusic Cleveland, National Repertory Orchestra, St. John’s Chamber Orchestra, Diablo Symphony Orchestra, and Peninsula Symphony. (Resume updated by Concerto Committee in 2016 from reliable online sources.)