If you aspire to the very highest level of achievement as a musician and cellist, and hope to pursue those goals in a program (and with a teacher) that will best nurture your growth towards these goals, you would do well to consider applying to the University of Tennessee cello program. With a nationally recognized teacher, increasingly visible cello studio, wonderful guest artists every semester, excellent programs and unique events, the UT cello studio is a nationally important cello program still on the ascent.
Program Highlights
- Nationally recognized Tennessee Cello Workshop, a three day event each February which brings world renown pedagogues and performers on campus, along with approximately 150 cellists from throughout the United States for master classes, cello ensemble, three cello competitions, faculty recitals, and lectures.
- Twice weekly studio technique and solo classes for cellists.
- Orchestral excerpts course, taken by many cellists in the studio.
- Enthusiastic, mutually supportive culture in the studio
- Visiting artist master classes for the cello studio each semester
- Wesley Baldwin’s cello students have gone on to continue their studies at some of the most renown institutions in the world. These include the Universities of Michigan, Southern California, Georgia, and Maryland; the Boston Conservatory, the Hartt School, Florida State University, the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music, and Oberlin Conservatory.
- Summer festivals that Wesley Baldwin’s cello students have attended include the National Repertory Orchestra, the Roundtop Festival, the Texas Music Festival, The Quartet Program, Meadowmount, Bowdoin, Green Mountain, Sewanee, Bowdoin, Hot Springs, ARIA, and Wintergreen Festivals.
- Former members of the UT cello studio are now members of professional orchestras throughout the United States.
- UT cello students routinely win the University of Tennessee Concerto Competitions, as well as the UT Celebration of Excellence Competitions. Other recent competition prizes include recognition in the MAACO concerto competition, the Tennessee Cello Workshop competitions, and the La Grange Young artist competition.
- Former UT music education cello students have ALL found full time employment as music educators. They currently teach in S.C., GA, TN, VA, and TX.
Meet Our Faculty
Wesley Baldwin
Professor of Cello | wbaldwin@utk.edu
Cellist Wesley Baldwin holds degrees from Yale College, the New England Conservatory, and the University of Maryland. His cello teachers included Colin Carr, Evelyn Elsing David Hardy, David Soyer, and Peter Wiley. Prior to his appointment at UT, he taught cello at the University of Maryland, and at Florida International University, where he was an artist-in-residence for three years.
Professor Baldwin performs throughout the United States and Europe as soloist and chamber musician. As a concerto soloist he has appeared throughout the United States. In the 2010-2011 season his performances included concerti with the Oak Ridge, Wintergreen Festival, New River Valley, Salisbury, and Bismarck-Mandan Symphony Orchestras and solo and chamber recitals Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.
An advocate for great music from all eras, Professor Baldwin is one of the only performers of several little known and new concerti for cello, including recently those by Wagenseil, Jacob T.V., Behzad Ranjbaran, and Alan Shulman. His recording of Shulman cello music, released by Albany records in 2010, enjoys widespread critical acclaim. He has also recorded for the Naxos, Zyode, Centaur, and Innova labels.
Wesley was the founder of the Plymouth String Quartet, with whom he was a top prizewinner in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and a finalist in the Paolo Borciani International String Quartet Competition. Other performing honors Baldwin has received include the Prix Mercure and Homer Ulrich Awards. Most recently, Wesley is a 2011 recipient of a Tennessee Arts Commission Individual Performing Artist Fellowship.
As a member and principal cellist of the New World Symphony for four years, Baldwin performed with many of the world’s great conductors, and toured Japan, Scotland, England, Argentina, and Brazil. His orchestral colleagues there selected him as the recipient of the New World Symphony’s Community Board Award for artistic integrity and leadership. Wesley has continued his association with the New World Symphony the last ten years as an evaluator of regional auditions each Spring for the orchestra.
Testimonials
World-renowned cellists
“Wesley is a wonderful musician and a terrific cellist. He has built a superb cello class in Knoxville and his annual cello workshop has become a magnet for cellists nationwide.”
Colin Carr, noted soloist, faculty member of SUNY Stony Brook
“Wesley Baldwin is a first-rate cellist and excellent teacher…”
Anthony Elliott, Professor of Cello, University of Michigan
Students
“Wesley Baldwin’s studio is not only a hub of immense concentration on all aspects of physically sound and musical cello playing, but a home, where support and encouragement impart a rare synergy of personal and communal growth.”
Matt Gabriel, current UT cello major, from McAllen, TX
“The time I spent at the University of Tennessee studying with Dr. Baldwin was the most integral development of my education. Under his influence I not only advanced my ability to play the cello, but also laid a foundation to become a working professional musician.”
Jeanine Wilkinson, MM in cello performance, 2008; Currently cellist with the Symphony of the Mountains, Oak Ridge, Bryan, and Roanoke Symphonies
“My experiences with Dr. Baldwin’s teaching have not only fulfilled my hunger to master my cello technique and become a better performer, but have also given me the tools to perform and teach my own students successfully. If I had the possibility of going back in time to study cello, I would still choose Dr. Baldwin as my teacher. The UT cello studio possesses the qualities of warmth, friendliness, encouragement, and resources for a lifetime.”
Andy Arango – MME 2011, Middle School Orchestra Director, Steven F. Austin Middle School in San Juan, TX, cellist with the Valley Symphony Orchestra (TX)
Teaching Philosophy
My cello teaching emphasizes several fundamental goals: the natural use of the body in cello playing, the desire for better listening and analytical skills, and development of clear musical values and instrumental aspirations. Development of a strong kinesthetic awareness of the body and how it functions is a prerequisite for acquiring an excellent technical command of the cello. With such knowledge one can proceed to studying the instrument with paradigms of technique that involve less physical struggle and discomfort and, hence, better results. My students learn to play with ease and comfort.
When playing effortlessly and naturally one starts (with encouragement) to hear the sounds one is producing more accurately. With better listening comes clearer and self-generated awareness of technical weaknesses and strengths in one’s playing, and—quite significantly—a keener desire to work out flaws in one’s playing. With excellent listening and analytical skills students are more receptive to useful advice in lessons and coachings. This helps them to learn more quickly. Even more significantly, as a student develops a strong technical foundation, great listening skills, honest self-appraisals, and an array of powerful practicing strategies, the student grows to become an excellent teacher for him- or herself (and, eventually, for others). As this happens the aspiring cellist’s progress takes off.
Even as my students and I work on the craft of cello playing, we spend a large part of our energy on the art of music making. My students are led to grow in compass not merely as cellists but, more importantly, as musicians.
Understanding the syntax of music and communicating through music coherently, intelligently, and uniquely are essential for a life with cello to have any long-term substantive value.
Weekly studio performance and technique classes are critical to a vibrant class of student cellists. Albert Einstein’s comment about knowledge coming from experience shows itself to be true every time a student performs for his or her peers. All of my cello students must perform regularly.
The growth that performing solo cello literature encourages is paralleled by the regular study and performance of orchestral excerpts, another requirement of all my cello students. My students must study excerpts only in part to know the likely required repertoire for most orchestral auditions. The standard orchestral excerpts are in the audition canon because they encapsulate and exemplify so many of the instrumental and musical skills required of a professional cellist. Thus, the study of excerpts serves as both preparation for orchestral auditions and as a forum for exploring musical styles and technical mastery of the instrument.
I am honest about where my students are in relationship to their goals, but do not use shame or fear to motivate my students. I teach with great energy and enthusiasm, appealing to idealistic musical goals whenever possible. While my teaching continues to grow, the approach I outline here suits me and has been serving my students well. It will, I imagine, continue to be representative of my approach to teaching.
Wesley Baldwin
Professor of Cello and Chamber Music
University of Tennessee