About

Cellist Tony Rymer, at only 25 years old, already garners high praise.

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Rymer is “a seasoned pro, mature and polished,” while the Cleveland Plain Dealer praised “the considerable range of his virtuosity.”

Along with the Atlanta and Cleveland symphony orchestras, Rymer, the 2009 winner of the Sphinx Competition, also earned critical acclaim after performing with the Boston Pops, Detroit and Pittsburgh symphonies, and others. The Boston native recently took 2nd prize in the George Enecsu competition in 2014 and has performed in Carnegie Hall´s Stern Auditorium with the Sphinx Virtuosi, and in Weill Hall with the Spruce Quartet.

Rymer keeps company with the brightest lights of classical performance. An avid chamber musician, he has played concerts with violinists Itzhak Perlman, Kim Kashkashian, Miriam Fried and Ani Kavafian; oboist Peggy Pearson; and cellist Paul Katz. He has played privately for Yo-Yo Ma, and performed in master classes for Anner Bylsma, Steven Isserlis, and Pieter Wispelwey.

Mainstream audiences have also been wowed by Rymer’s immense talent. One of the first recipients of the Jack Kent Cooke Award on the NPR national radio show “From the Top” Rymer has also been heard as a soloist on WGBH Boston, WCLV Cleveland, and NPR's “Performance Today”. In 2009, at the age of 18, Rymer won third place in the Stulberg International String Competition.

Tony began playing cello at age five. He attended the Walnut Hill Arts School, was a Project STEP scholarship student from 1996-2007, and was awarded the prestigious Kravitz scholarship in 2007 at the New England Conservatory. He completed his undergraduate and masters degrees in music at NEC, where he held the Laurence Lesser Presidential Scholarship and the Myra Hess scholarship.

While at NEC, Rymer studied with Paul Katz and Laurence Lesser. Building on his love of chamber music, he worked closely with members of the Cleveland, Emerson, Juilliard, and Takacs quartets. He’s also studied at festivals with Tim Eddy, Frans Helmerson, Gary Hoffman and Ralph Kirshbaum along with chamber music studies with artists Leon Fleisher, Pamela Frank, Menahem Pressler, and Thomas Riebl.

Tony currently studies with Frans Helmerson at Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik in Berlin and plays on a cello made by John Betts in 1785, on loan from the Steans Music Institute.

Past groupmuses (27)