Biography
Lauded as “vibrant” and “gifted” (Chicago Classical Review), Filipino-American cellist Ezra Escobar maintains a prolific output as a multigenre cellist, composer, and music producer. He made his solo debut at age 16 with the Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago and was a guest soloist with the Lake Forest Civic Orchestra. Other concert engagements include appearances with the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts, Young Steinway Concert Series, Evanston Chamber Music Festival, Chicago Rush Hour Concerts, the Waukegan Chamber Music Society, the EstOvest Festival in Turin, Italy, and on Chicago’s WFMT radio station, as well as performances in collaboration with Victor Asuncion, Renaud Déjardin, Naomi Berrill, Francesco Dillon, Claudio Pasceri, kora virtuoso Ballaké Sissoko, activist music collective Sound Off, and noted jazz clarinetist Ken Peplowski.
Ezra has performed with ensembles such as the Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra, the Chicago Philharmonic, Lake Forest Symphony, and Skokie Valley Symphony orchestras, and has concertized at venues such as Symphony Center in Chicago, Alice Tully Hall, Pritzker Pavilion, Ravinia Festival’s Bennett Gordon Hall, and Pick-Staiger Hall at Northwestern University. Ezra has served as principal cello of the Mannes Orchestra and the Kankakee Valley Symphony, and has performed under conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Antonio Pappano, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, JoAnn Falletta, & Cristian Mǎcelaru.
Ezra has won prizes at the DePaul Concerto Festival, the Chinese Fine Arts Society Music Festival in Honor of Confucius, the Walgreens National Concerto Competition, and the Royal College of Music Contemporary Competition, where he won top prize in both the performer and composer categories. His compositions have been premiered at Symphony Center in Chicago, Bennett Gordon Hall at Ravinia Festival. the Evanston Chamber Music Society, the Heifetz Institute, and the Ogle Center at Indiana University. Ezra is a resident artist of the Fil-Am Music Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting exceptional Filipino classical musicians through scholarship assistance and performance opportunities. With the Foundation, he has presented the U.S premieres of works by Filipino composers including Lucrecia Kasilag, Lucio San Pedro, A.J Villenueva, & Gabriel Mendoza.
Ezra is currently a postgraduate student at the Royal College of Music, studying with Hélène Dautry. He previously studied with Marcy Rosen at the Mannes School of Music and Tanya Carey at the Music Institute of Chicago. Additional studies include lessons and master classes with Johannes Moser, Hans Jensen, Timothy Eddy, Marc Coppey, Colin Carr, Eric-Maria Couturier, Renaud Déjardin, Francesco Dillon, Matt Haimovitz, Astrid Schween, Fred Sherry, & Denis Brott.
photo: Luigi de Palma