Cellist Lydia Rhea has traveled across the world sharing the power of storytelling through music. A firm believer in increasing accessibility to concert halls and diversifying the classical canon, her work has taken her from Carnegie Hall to Cuba in performing and teaching capacities. 

Lydia has performed with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and appeared on NPR’s From theTop with jazz pianist Fred Hersch, with whom she played one of his original compositions in Boston’s Jordan Hall. In July 2023, Lydia was a member of the quartet-in-residence at the European American Musical Alliance Summer Institute in Paris. She previously attended the Sitka International Cello Seminar in Sitka, Alaska, where she studied intensively with concert cellist Zuill Bailey.

Lydia received her Master’s Degree in Cello Performance from The Juilliard School in 2024 where she studied with Natasha Brofsky. While attending Juilliard, she was part of the Honors Chamber Music Program and studied additionally with Areta Zhulla, Catherine Cho, and Joel Krosnick. She previously completed her undergraduate training at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she was mentored by Dr. Melissa Kraut, Philip Setzer, and Si-Yan Darren Li. Upon graduating CIM, Lydia received the Speilman Memorial Award for an exceptional cellist and the Kaplow Prize for Uncommon Creativity. 

In October 2024, Lydia traveled to Cuba where she taught and performed with students through CAYO, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting, educating, and empowering students, teachers, and audiences in the US and Cuba. Lydia is an artist with Concerts for Compassion, a NYC-based nonprofit that brings music and education to displaced peoples, and is a Teaching Artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.  

Lydia currently resides in New York City with her cello, Rosie, a Lawrence Wilke instrument made in 2008. You can find her on socials @lydia_cello.