David Bjella, cello

“the heart and finesse to bring out the feeling in each burst of melody-to make the extroverted ones surge and swell, and to make the quiet ones seem to just float from the cello.”

-Orlando Sentinel

A native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, David Bjella has a multi-faceted career as a teacher, chamber musician, orchestral player, and soloist. He is Professor of Cello at the University of Central Florida School of Performing Arts in Orlando, Florida. He is a member of the IRIS Orchestra in Memphis Tennessee under the direction of Michael Stern and was a member of the Inman Piano Trio for 13 years. Professor Bjella is one of the featured IRIS chamber musicians for the Naxos-released CD, "Music of Stephen Hartke," which was chosen by the New York Times as a Top Ten Classical Recording. He has also served as Professor of Cello at Stetson University, Visiting Associate Professor of Cello at Florida State University, Adjunct Professor of Cello at UCF and has taught in the Valade Master Teacher program at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan. A sought-after performer and teacher, Bjella was asked in 2018 to join the Academia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy and the Madeline Island Chamber Music Festival in Wisconsin. He has also been a faculty member at the following festivals: Orfeo Festival in Italy, Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory in Colorado, Bellingham Festival in Washington State, Quartz Mountain Festival in Oklahoma, Black Hills Chamber Soloists in South Dakota, Cedar Valley Chamber Music Festival in Iowa, and the Bay Area Music Festival in Florida. In 2012 and 2015, Bjella was also a featured soloist at the Beaumaris Festival in Wales.

Bjella’s passion for teaching has produced many recent notable achievements:

• Three different Concerto Competition winners in 2019/20

• Students placed in graduate programs at USC (Thornton School of Music), Rice, Indiana University, Hartt School, Longy, and CIM 

• Two students in the last three years winning auditions for NYO (National Youth Orchestra)

• National audition winners at orchestral openings for the Memphis Symphony and Principal Cello with the Mississippi Symphony 

• Summer festival placements at NOI, Tanglewood, Aspen, Bowdoin, Brevard, and Eastern

• Winner of Sarasota Young Artist Competition and 2nd place at Sphinx Competition

• Pre-college students awarded title positions in Youth Symphonies, and All-State Principal chairs. 

In 2012 Bjella joined Cuerdas de Enlace, a performing and teaching festival in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. As soloist, Bjella has appeared with many regional and college orchestras in the Southeast and Midwest. In addition to his orchestral work with the IRIS Orchestra, he has also been Principal Cellist of the Florida Symphony, Orlando Philharmonic, Southwest Florida Symphony, the Annapolis Symphony, a member of the cello section in Cincinnati, Tampa (Associate Principal Florida Orchestra) as well as a substitute for the Baltimore Symphony. An avid sports fan, Bjella lives in Oviedo, Florida with his wife Traci Ash-Bjella, and their dog, Moxie.