Iona Batchelder is a New York City-based chamber, orchestral, and solo artist.
From her earliest memories, classical music was an integral part of Ms. Batchelder’s life. Recordings by artists as varied as Yo-Yo Ma, Alfred Brendel, the Guarneri Quartet, the Philip Glass Ensemble, and the Kronos Quartet pervaded her formative years. Her very first live concert experience was seeing the Mark Morris Dance Company at the age of three and since then, she has been intensely interested in collaborations with musicians and interdisciplinary artists alike.
In January 2023, Ms. Batchelder embarked on a three-concert tour of Texas as the featured soloist with the Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra, performing Saint-Säens’ first cello concerto in Arlington, Garland, and Irving. Other recent performance highlights include recital performances on Lincoln Center’s The Art of Wellbeing series, Midwest and Pacific Northwest tours with the New York Classical Players, main stage appearances with folk singer Judy Collins, and score recording work on Netflix’s Green Eggs and Ham. Ms. Batchelder has been an acting section cellist in the Princeton Symphony Orchestra since 2023 and has performed as a substitute musician in the New York City Ballet Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and the American Symphony Orchestra.
Image credit: New York Classical Players © Yo Han Yeom
Ms. Batchelder has attended Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Juilliard’s ChamberFest, and the Aspen Music Festival as an orchestral fellow. She has performed as principal cellist under the batons of Marin Alsop, James Conlon, John Adams, Jeffrey Milarsky, and Joseph Colaneri at halls including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Royce Hall. Ms. Batchelder has also been Assistant Principal Cellist of the American Youth Symphony.
Ms. Batchelder was a founding member of the Unison Quartet, which formed at Juilliard in the fall of 2018. The Unison Quartet, which was a recipient of an Honorary Mention award at the 2021 Bartók Competition in Budapest, Hungary, worked with members of the Cleveland, Cavani, Escher, Juilliard, Mendelssohn, Pacifica, and American Quartets and participated in the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, the Perlman Music Program’s Chamber Music Workshop, and the Aspen Music Festival’s Center for Advanced Quartet Studies.
Passionate about community outreach and education, Ms. Batchelder was a Gluck community service fellow for four years at Juilliard. Through the program, she brought interdisciplinary performances to hospital rooms, nursing homes, and psychiatric wards throughout New York City. In her third year at Juilliard, she developed a curated educational program for the half hour KidZone TV program at Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital as a part of Music as Medicine.
Ms. Batchelder was a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship at The Juilliard School, where she graduated with her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees, both under the tutelage of Darrett Adkins, and a Juilliard Career Advancement Fellowship. She studied chamber music with artists including Joel Smirnoff, Roger Tapping, Joel Krosnick, Daniel Druckman, and Joseph Kalichstein. Deeply committed to educating the next generation, Ms. Batchelder maintains a private studio in New York City and teaches at Suzuki on the Island in Manhasset, NY.