Darshan Trio: See Yourself

“You can tell that his interests extend not just to playing the piano, but to being an artist citizen.” (Ohio News) 

Dominic Cheli embraces the role of an artist-citizen in his multifaceted career as performer, educator, composer, and director. He is described as an “inspired keyboardist” (artsfuse) whose playing is “spontaneous yet perfect, the best of how a young person can play.” (Symphony Magazine). His rapidly advancing career included his Walt Disney Concert Hall Debut with the Colburn Orchestra where Dominic was “mesmerizing, (he) transfixed the audience.” (LA Times). He gave his Carnegie Hall Recital Debut in 2019 and has had a busy performing and recording career ever since. He recorded his 2nd CD on the Naxos label of the music of Liszt/Schubert, and was a performer/producer/editor on a 3rd CD of the music of Erwin Schulhoff for the Delos Label featuring his collaboration on Piano Concerto no.2 with Maestro James Conlon. He also recently completed work as a composer, audio editor and performer on the documentary Defying Gravity (2021). 

A native of St. Louis, Dominic has performed with orchestras all across the country and abroad including the San Diego Symphony, Sarasota Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Princeton Symphony, Colburn Orchestra, Virginia Symphony, Adrian Symphony, and the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie (Germany). He has worked with conductors such as James Conlon, Gerard Schwarz, Valery Gergiev and many others. Dominic debuted at several major festivals across the United States including the Ravinia Festival, Mostly Mozart Festival, and the Virginia Arts Festival. Upcoming engagements include appearances with the Seattle Symphony, a debut at Alice Tully Hall, and his 4th appearance at Carnegie Hall. 

As a recording artist, Cheli’s albums have been met with acclaim. Musicweb-international hailed Cheli’s 1st album, featuring the music of Muzio Clementi, as “definitive performances” and his 2021 album, Liszt: Schubert transcriptions, as “utterly brilliant”. Also in 2017, Dominic was named 1st prize winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York City. 

With a fascination and appreciation for the benefits of technology especially in our new virtual age, Dominic was appointed LIVE Director of Tonebase Piano in 2021. As a result, he is the host and presenter of numerous virtual lectures, performances and workshops each month to the 5,000+ subscribers on the platform. His mission is to share personal knowledge and invite guests to democratize high-level music education, allowing everyone to learn from and be inspired by the best! 

Committed to engaging with his surrounding community, Dominic regularly performs and brings curated programs/educational residencies to schools and retirement homes. He has performed as an artist for Project: Music Heals Us, a non-profit organization that presents interactive classical music performances to diverse audiences in order to provide encouragement, education, and healing with a focus on elderly, disabled, rehabilitating, incarcerated, and homeless populations. He also performs with Street Symphony, an organization centered in practices of relationship, renewal, re-entry, and recovery, presenting musical programs in Skid Row built on sustained relationships and partnerships with Skid Row organizations and community individuals.

Dominic has received degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, Yale University, and the Colburn School studying with Zena Ilyashov, Andre-Michel Schub, Peter Frankl, and Fabio Bidini. 

Mr. Cheli is a Yamaha Artist and recently appointed faculty member of the Colburn Community Music School.

In his spare time, Dominic enjoys cooking and training for Ironman triathlons.

Described by the press as “a remarkable ‘cellist who possesses both intellect and innate musicality… one of the finest cellists of his generation” (Chopin magazine Japan), Japanese ‘cellist YOSHIKA MASUDA has performed throughout Australia, Japan, China, Mexico, the USA, the UK and much of western Europe as a soloist and chamber musician. He is the winner of national competitions in Australia, Japan and the US, and was also awarded the prestigious YAMAHA Music Foundation of Europe String Award.

Chamber music forms the core of Yoshika’s musical endeavours, and he has performed alongside Peter Frankl, Bruno Giuranna, Gil Kalish, Alissa Margulis, Roger Tapping, Don Weilerstein and Qian Zhou. He is the co-founder of the SAKURA cello quintet and resident cellist for Salastina LA, and was also the former cellist of the award-winning Rolston Quartet with whom he toured Canada and Europe. Yoshika has performed at the festivals of Aldeburgh and Leicester in the UK, Festival Amfiteatrof in Italy, Kirishima Music Festival in Japan, and the Yellow Barn Music Festival and Piatigorsky International Cello Festival in the USA. His performances were broadcast widely on ABC Classic FM (Australia), BBC Radio 3 (UK), Musiq’3 (Belgium), Klassik Radio (Germany), KUSC (USA) and Concertzender Radio (The Netherlands).

A keen advocate of contemporary music, Yoshika has given the US & world premieres of works by Reena Esmail, Toshio Hosokawa, Derrick Skye, Bent Sørensen, Nick Strimple and Jörg Widmann.

His interests outside of the classical genre have led him to perform with artists such as Ben Folds at the Sydney Opera House and Pink Martini at the Hollywood Bowl. Yoshika is also featured on Leonard Cohen’s last album ‘You Want It Darker’, which was released in October 2016 on Columbia Records.

Born in Kobe, Japan, Yoshika first started playing the cello at the age of five but moved to Australia as a young child where he began his studies with Georg Pedersen at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He then studied extensively with Hannah Roberts and Ralph Kirshbaum, whilst also receiving close musical guidance from Thomas Demenga and David Geringas. Yoshika graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music in the UK with distinction and received the Principal’s Prize along with the Leonard Rose Cello Award for outstanding achievement. He gained his D.M.A. from the USC Thornton School of Music.

Yoshika is dedicated to nurturing the next generation of young cellists – his students have had successes in both local and national competitions, as well as being admitted to prestigious institutions such as Juilliard, NEC, and USC. Having previously taught at California Lutheran University, Yoshika will be the new Assistant Professor of Cello and Director of String Studies at Chapman University Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music. He has also served on the summer faculty of the Montecito International Music Festival and the Yellow Barn Young Artist Program.