Charles Curtis

Born in Laguna Beach, California in 1960, cellist Charles Curtis has followed a singular path through the worlds of concert performance and musical experimentation. A student of Harvey Shapiro and Leonard Rose at Juilliard and the recipient of the Piatigorsky Prize, upon graduation Curtis taught at Princeton and performed internationally as a soloist and chamber musician. For ten years he was Principal Cellist of the NDR Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg, appearing as soloist with conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, André Previn, Günter Wand, John Eliot Gardiner and Christoph Eschenbach. Curtis has also been guest soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, National Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, Janacek Philharmonic, Orchestra de la Maggio Musicale Florence, among many others.

His long creative relationships with experimentalists La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, Alvin Lucier, Tashi Wada and Éliane Radigue have brought into being a body of distinctive works modeled on his cello-playing and performing persona. His own creative work has spanned sound-based and installatory work in galleries and alternative spaces, as well as experimental rock merging sustained sine waves and spoken word. He has made original music for experimental films by artists such as Raha Raissnia, Luke Fowler and Jeff Perkins. Very recent performances have taken Curtis to Empty Gallery in Hong Kong, the Biennale Son in Valais, Switzerland, London’s Café Oto for a four-concert residency, the Big Ears festival in Knoxville, the Fondation Cartier in Paris and Blank Forms in New York.

Curtis has taught since 2000 at the University of California, San Diego, where he is now distinguished professor of music.