Saturday’s concert by the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra will feature Edward Elgar’s famous Cello Concerto in E minor, Op 85, and the ballet Petroushka by Igor Stravinsky. The soloist for the concerto is Hai-Ye Ni, principal cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Prior to joining the Philadelphia Orchestra, she was associate principal in the New York Philharmonic.
In an interview with Cara Lieurance, Hai-Ye Ni says her early training was with her mother, a cellist, in Shanghai, China, but she moved to the United States at age 13 to study with the San Francisco Conservatory's Irene Sharp. She tells the story of days at Juilliard, and her audition for the New York Philharmonic. She also describes the workload of the Philadelphia Orchestra, which involves preparing hours and hours of music every week.
