Adriana Contino

Adriana Contino is a cellist noted for her versatility and musicianship as well as a deep interest in pedagogy. As professor of cello, baroque cello and chamber music at the Hochschule fuer Musik in Freiburg, Germany, she taught and concertized from 1991 to 2012. From 1987 to 1991 she served as principal cellist of both the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and Bach Collegium with which she toured world wide as soloist. Prof. Contino founded the Bach Chamber Soloists and was a member of the Caecilian Trio. In 1976, having completed a bachelor of music at Indiana University with Janos Starker, she was appointed to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Andre Previn. She was that orchestra’s youngest member and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra’s first female principal. She has worked with conductors Robert Shaw, Dennis Russell Davies, Lukas Foss, Helmuth Rilling, Raphael Kubelik, Trevor Pinnock, Ferdinand Leitner and William Steinburg among others. Mentors Gyorgy Sebok, Joel Krosnick, Arleen Auger, and Julius Herford, as well as her parents, conductor Fiora Contino and clarinetist Joseph Contino deeply shaped her musical philosophies. Her festival performances include Mostly Mozart, European Music, Lucerne, Aspen, and Oregon Bach. She has gained recognition in both solo and chamber repertoire and as an outstanding continuo cellist. Adriana Contino is an avid improviser, both in baroque and free styles and integrates many forms of artistic expression in her work. Currently Prof. Contino resides in Indianapolis, Indiana, where she lives with her daughter, concertizes, and continues work on a book on pedagogy. She teaches regularly at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, the College Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, and Anderson University. She is an active performer as well as a sought-after pedagogue. As a volunteer she has been intensely involved with hospice and education.