Rhonda Rider
Rhonda Rider, cellist, was a founding member of the Naumburg Award winning Lydian Quartet. This ensemble played throughout the world, including concerts at Aspen, the American Academy in Rome, and the US/USSR Contemporary Music Festival in Russia, and recorded a wide variety of repertoire including Schubert, Ives, Hyla, and two CDs of Harbison quartets. In 2002 Rider left the quartet to devote more time to her work as a soloist, as a duo performer, as a member of the trio, Double Helix, and as director of her Cello Seminar, devoted to contemporary music, in Salem, NY. In the summer of 2002, she acted as the cello coach for the Asian Youth Symphony in Hong Kong. Rider strikes a balance between exploration of the standard repertoire (a complete Beethoven trio cycle with Double Helix in Boston and Los Angeles, and commission, performing, and recording many new pieces. Her solo and duo recordings of recent music bother were cited as Best of the Year by the Boston Globe.