cello & Piano april 12th 2025
James Jaffe, cello
Cellist James Jaffe sees every performance as an opportunity to create authentic connections between art, artists, and audience members. He has performed as a soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra, CityMusic Cleveland, and St. John’s Chamber Orchestra. Chamber music appearances have taken him to Beijing’s Central Conservatory, the Casalmaggiore International Festival in Italy, concert tours of Switzerland and France, and the Robert Mann String Quartet Seminar in Manhattan . His concerts have been broadcast on Cleveland’s WCLV 104.9, Virginia’s WVTF 89.1, San Francisco’s KDFC 90.3, and streamed live from the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.
A visionary performer and collaborator, James co-founded Wave Chamber Collective, which brings chamber musicians into dynamic new relationships with poets, artists, and scientists, and became a prescribed fire practitioner through his work with the Fire and Music Project, a new initiative creating performances to inspire a shift in Californians’ relationship with fire. James is a longstanding member of the Groupmuse house concert cooperative, having performed at 150 Groupmuses to date, including a sold-out performance of Schubert’s Death and the Maiden at the Bay Area’s first Massivemuse. He also works as a core member and section leader of One Found Sound, San Francisco’s unconducted chamber orchestra. He is a founding member of the Sierra Quartet and serves as artistic director of Festival Rolland, a summer chamber music festival in Burgundy, France. While classically trained, he has been fortunate to collaborate across genres with Journey, Deltron 3030, Vanessa Williams, Brad Mehldau, and Ensemble Mik Nawooj.
The son of a musicologist and an orchestral conductor, James began his lifelong journey with music by listening to ensembles conducted by his father, and absorbing his mother’s joy at the power of music and nature. James began piano lessons at the age of five and cello lessons at the age of nine, and before graduating high school he had won local concerto competitions at the Sacramento Youth Symphony, the Diablo Symphony Orchestra, and the Peninsula Symphony.
James studied the cello with Louise Saunders in Stockton, Milly Rosner in Berkeley, and Richard Aaron at the University of Michigan. He completed advanced performance degrees at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Stephen Geber, and the San Francisco Conservatory with Jennifer Culp. He spent summers in training at the Aspen Music Festival, Banff Centre in Canada, Astona Academy in Switzerland, and Music@Menlo. His chamber music mentors include members of the Juilliard, Cleveland, Takács, Tokyo, Vermeer, Emerson, Brentano, Borromeo, St. Lawrence, and Kronos quartets.
Passionate about sharing music with the next generation, James has coached chamber music at the Crowden School in Berkeley, served as director of high school chamber ensembles at Baldwin Wallace University, and mentored students through the Detroit Symphony's Civic Youth Ensembles program. He has also appeared as guest faculty at the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra and the Northern Lights Chamber Music Institute.
Elektra Schmidt, piano
Award winning pianist Elektra Schmidt performs as solo artist and in chamber groups in the United States, France, Greece, and the United Kingdom. Notable recent engagements include performing as soloist with the Santa Rosa Symphony, the Golden Gate Symphony and the Bay Area’s Awesöme Orchestra.
As well as a flourishing performance career, Elektra curates for numerous festivals and art houses in Europe and San Francisco. She is the founder of Artist Migration, an organization dedicated to the integration and mobility of international artists.
After graduating summa cum laude from the National Conservatory of her native Greece, Elektra pursued her post-graduate studies in Paris at the Schola Cantorum and the Conservatoire Raoul Pugno under the guidance of distinguished pianist Lilia Boyadjieva.
She received her master’s degree with First Prize and Distinction (Medaille d’Or avec les félicitations du jury).
Elektra has collaborated with international festivals throughout the world including the San Francisco International Arts Festival, Flower Piano Festival, and Oxford Philomusica in the United Kingdom. Exciting plans for this coming season include BajaPianoFest in Baja California in May and performances in Paris, London and Rome in June.