Wendy K. Sutter

Heralded as “one of the great leading cellists of the classical stage” by the Wall Street Journal, Wendy Sutter has proven herself as one of the foremost and diverse soloists of her generation. Having performed widely on five continents, she has been acclaimed by critics in all major publications including The New York Times, Strad Magazine, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and The San Francisco Chronicle. Ms. Sutter has appeared frequently as soloist with such orchestras as The Dallas Symphony, The Seattle Symphony, The Colorado Symphony, The Hong Kong Philharmonic, The Brussels Philharmonic, The Shanghai Symphony, The Shenzhen Symphony, The Royal Resident Orchestra of the Hague, The Tucson Symphony, The Northern Netherlands Orchestra, The Juilliard Symphony, The Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, The La Jolla Symphony. She toured as soloist with The Youth Orchestra of the Americas and The Shanghai Symphony throughout China, South America and The United States of America. As soloist, she has served under many esteemed conductors, including Jaap Van Zweden, Marin Alsop, Gerard Schwarz, Dante Anziolini, Mikhail Jurowski, Michel Tabachnik and Tan Dun. Ms. Sutter appears regularly at numerous festivals in Europe, Canada, Asia and the United States, including Marlboro, Mostly Mozart, Spoleto, Ravinia, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society. In addition, she has played countless solo recitals at venues such as The Barbican, Carnegie Hall, Bargemusic and Lincoln Center.

Equally accomplished in the world of contemporary music, Ms. Sutter performed for 7 years as the cellist with The Bang on a Can “All-Stars”, collaborating, recording and performing countless concerts alongside some of the most significant living composers and musicians of our time including Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Tan Dun, Don Byron, Meredith Monk, Iva Bittova, Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe, and Davi Lang. Ms. Sutter has had countless pieces written especially for her by, amongst others, Philip Glass, John King, Joel Harrison, Martin Matalon and Don Byron. Of note, Philip Glass’s solo cello suite ’ Songs and Poems’ written for Sutter by Glass in 2007, drew praise from audiences and critics world-widewide and to great acclaim, was voted best new CD of the year by listeners of National Public and became the second-best selling download in the classical division on iTunes , 2008. Glass continued to write many more works for Ms. Sutter, including the double concerto for violin and cello, various pieces for cello and piano, a string sextet, and a sequel to “ Songs and Poems”. She also appears on a disc of chamber music composed by Guggenheim fellowship-award winning composer Joel Harrison. Greg Sandow described her performance of the Glass Suites in the Wall Street Journal in fulsome terms: “Sutter throws herself into the music with something like ferocity, playing each repetition as an intensification of the one before. Or maybe sheʼs just so intense that everything feels new. And so the music never stands still.” Her San Francisco premiere of this work at the Herbst Theater was voted the best performance of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle (2007) and to date this recording has sold over 85, 000 downloads.

In 1994 Ms. Sutter was invited by Mikhail Baryshnikov to give the world premiere of “A Suite of Dances”, an on stage duet for Ms. Sutter playing Bach solo suites for cello, accompanying Mikhail Baryshnikov. This piece was choreographed especially for these two artists by the legendary Jerome Robbins. Following the world premiere of this piece given at State Theater at Lincoln Center
in New York City, between 1994 and 1997 Sutter and Baryshnikov performed this piece easily 100 times on all continents and frequently as guest artists with the NYC Ballet at Lincoln Center. Of her many performances, Ms. Sutter was invited to appear in a solo recital for Bill and Melinda Gates at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. She performed all of the Britten Suites for solo cello in one evening in Seattle and New York City, and recently performed the entire Beethoven works for cello and piano at Bargemusic, NYC. And while still a student at Julliard, she won the Juilliard cello competition, which awarded her the New York City premiere of composer David Diamondʼs “Kaddish” for cello and orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, conducted by Gerard Schwarz. In addition, again upon invitation from the composer himself, Tan Dun and Ms. Sutter toured extensively in 2003, Mswith the composer/ conductor at the podium, performing all of his solo concerti including the Oscar Academy Award winning score “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” cello concerto, “The Map” cello concerto and “Water Passion”. Ms. Sutter toured these works throughout China, the USA and Asia, and at Kennedy Center as soloist with the Shanghai Symphony. Ms. Sutter has recorded for the Naxos, Bridge, Canteloupe Music, Deutsche Grammophon, Orange Mountain and Koch recording labels.