Estelle Choi

Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, cellist Estelle Choi has garnered top prizes as a soloist and as a chamber musician. She has gained international recognition as a founding member of the Calidore String Quartet, an ensemble that celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2020. Praised by the New York Times for its “deep reserves of virtuosity and irrepressible dramatic instinct” the Calidore won the Grand Prize of the 2016 M-Prize International Chamber Music Competition. As a member of the Calidore, Choi is an Avery Fisher Career Grant winner, recipient of the Lincoln Center Emerging Artist award, BBC 3 New Generation Artist and Borletti-Buitoni Trust recipient. Choi and the Calidore are members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and alumni of the Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two).

Choi’s artistry with the Calidore has been broadly praised by critics like Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times who wrote that “her tone is rich, deep and powerful, giving the impression that music and the room are a single living being.” Choi studied with John Kadz in Calgary, Aldo Parisot at the Yale School of Music and Ronald Leonard at the Colburn Conservatory. Choi serves on the faculty of the University of Delaware as Associate Professor of Cello and co-directs the UD Graduate Fellowship Quartet Program. Previously, she served as artist-in-residence at the University of Toronto and instructed cello performance and chamber music at the University of Houston. She holds a Masters degree from the Yale School of Music, and a Bachelor and Artist Diploma from the Colburn Conservatory of Music.