Guest artists
Nick Photinos
“Multi-Grammy Award-winning cellist”
Nick Photinos currently serves on the faculty of the Longy School of Music of Bard College, and holds lecturer positions at the University of Michigan and Northwestern University. He is faculty at the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival and performs in the Grossman Ensemble at the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition. A graduate of Northwestern University, the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, he lives in the Chicago area with his daughter and wife, with whom he is co-Artistic Director of Chamber Music at Bethany, a concert series bringing world-class instrumental and vocal chamber music to Chicago’s north side.
During Nick Photinos’ 24-year tenure as the founding cellist and co-Artistic Director of Eighth Blackbird, he performed over 1000 concerts and premiered hundreds of new works, including Steve Reich’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Double Sextet and works by Andy Akiho, Michael Gordon, and many others.
Nick Photinos’ numerous recordings span the Cedille, Nonesuch, New Amsterdam, Greenleaf, and Naxos labels. He recorded for Wilco on their Grammy-nominated album The Whole Love, and with Autumn Defense on their album Once Around.