Elaina Spiro
Instrument: Cello
Studies:
Boston Conservatory
Biography:
Elaina Spiro is a third year undergraduate student at the Boston Conservatory under the tutelage of Rhonda Rider, with a GPA of 3.98. She is a Named Scholar at Boston Conservatory, sponsored by Davi-Ellen and Bruce Chabner, since 2021. She is the 2023 Presser Scholar, awarded by The Presser Foundation and the Boston Conservatory Dean, Michael Shinn, for outstanding achievement at the Boston Conservatory. She is a member of the Hemenway String Quartet, which has earned the position of the Honors Ensemble for the 2022-2023 school year, performing works by Beethoven, Prokofiev, and Szymanowski. In April 2023, she was principal cellist of a chamber orchestra at Boston Conservatory which recorded seven film scoring cues by Berklee screen scoring students at PowerStation/BerkleeNYC, including one cello solo. In February 2023, she performed in a string quartet for Laura Kaminsky’s opera ‘As One’. In the fall 2022 semester, she held two orchestral principal positions, one being her second principal appearance in Mechanics Hall after her debut in February 2022. In November 2022, she performed in a masterclass under Natasha Brofsky. She has attended multiple summer festivals: 2022- Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival studying with Thomas Mesa, Christine Lamprea, and Allison Wells; 2021-Chosen Vale International Cello Seminar studying with Katinka Kleijn, Anthony Arnone, Elinor Frey, and Nick Photinos; 2019- New England Conservatory’s Summer Orchestra Institute. She recorded with Country Music Hall of Fame member Eddie Bayers for Stand Up to Cancer with a winner of the ‘Music as Healing’ Grant at Loud Recording Studios in July 2022. In April 2022, she performed in BSO’s Symphony Hall, with MIT’s choir orchestra, at Boston Conservatory’s Spring Soiree Gala, and in a shared sophomore recital in Houston Hall. She recorded at PowerStation/BerkleeNYC in December 2021 with BoCoCelli, participating in three world premieres, and one piece with extensive improvisation. She held the assistant principal position when recording at WGBH Studios with Boston Conservatory Orchestra in November 2021. She was a member of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras from 2018-2020, a member of the honors Chamber Orchestra Repertoire Ensemble chosen by Maestro Allen Tinkham in 2019-2020, and participated in their chamber music program. She has been studying cello since 2013, beginning at 11 years old with Andrea LaFranzo, a Boston Conservatory alumni.
