Praised for her “gorgeous tone and fine solo playing” (Nordjske), cellist Clara Abel enjoys a colorful performing career on both baroque and modern instruments.
Clara is a vibrant and flexible chamber musician noted for her sensitive ensemble skills and vivid stage presence. Chamber music lies at the heart of her musical experience. She has studied under the Brentano and Guarneri Quartets as well as three generations of Juilliard String Quartet members, and has held quartet residencies at Kneisel Hall and Norfolk Chamber Music Festivals. Her recent performance with the Tempest String Quartet at Marlboro Music Festival’s Potash Hill Campus was praised for its “rarely-heard combination of virtuosity and poetic beauty” (Brattleboro Reformer).
As Juilliard’s Historical Performance concerto competition winner, she performed CPE Bach’s A Major Cello Concerto with Juilliard415 in Alice Tully Hall and at the Boston Early Music Festival under Paul Agnew. Other recent solo highlights include Elgar’s Cello Concerto with NYO-USA, and her Lincoln Center solo debut conducted by Masaaki Suzuki.
Clara delights in performing with early music ensembles such as Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Twelfth Night, The English Concert, Jupiter Ensemble, Les Arts Florissants, and Teatro Nuovo. She loves to travel, and has performed throughout the US, Germany, France, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands, The Czech Republic, the UK, Russia, Korea, China, Macau and Bolivia. She is currently involved in an extensive project of bringing a newly-discovered 18th century cello manuscript to life, which has included modern-day premieres of works by Scarlatti and Gabrielli among others. Her ensemble Quartet Amizia was awarded San Francisco Classical Voice’s “Best New Discovery” award following their quartet fellowship at Valley of the Moon Music Festival in 2025. They return as Fellowship Faculty in 2026.
Clara is living in Paris during 2025-2026 as a Beebe Fellowship recipient. She holds three degrees from The Juilliard School, where she specialized in chamber music and historical performance and was a proud recipient of the Kovner Fellowship. She is immensely grateful to her teachers, Joel Krosnick and Phoebe Carrai.
