Thea Mesirow is an NYC-based cellist, educator, and collaborator with a diverse musical background and an artistic sensibility.
Most recently, she has performed with Japanese Breakfast and served as their NYC string leader, traveled to Los Angeles for the US premiere of a piece by Karen Tanaka, worked with CUNY Graduate students to premiere new works for solo cello, and premiered a new piece by Dante Cucurullo for cello and orchestra with the ADCA Symphony where she serves as principal cellist. This season Thea is excited to be joining Telos Consort as their newest member, and premiering a new work for solo cello by Alyssa Regent with New Chamber Ballet at the Clark Institute.
An advocate for new music, she served as co-executive director and cellist of Quartet121, “a magnet for world premieres” (New York Music Daily), and was the cellist and co-artistic director of The Nouveau Classical Project. Currently, she is one half of the “hypnotic and engaging” (Cleveland Classical) Berrow Duo, and the co-creator of the Actualizing Communities Project. Her projects have been funded by Chamber Music America, The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, and the Alice M. Ditson Fund. She performs regularly with contemporary music ensembles such as Talea and Ensemble Signal, and works with student composers at NYU. As a soloist and chamber musician, Thea has worked with composers such as Antoine Bueger, Suzanne Farrin, Eric Moe, Reiko Fueting, Sofia Gubaidulina, and performed at Radio City Music Hall, Lincoln Center Atrium, National Sawdust, and Carnegie Hall, among others.
A passionate educator who focuses on working with programs that give back to the community, she teaches with Youth Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Washington Heights Community Conservatory, and the Hunter College Symphony, alongside holding her own studio.
Thea studied with Erika Duke at California Institute of the Arts, has a master’s from Manhattan School of Music where she studied with Fred Sherry, and an Artist Diploma from NYU where she studied pedagogy and performance with Marion Feldman.