Cellista
Cellista® (born Freya Seeburger, February 21, 1983) is an American cellist and artistic director and arts advocate. She is known for collaborating with artists across various media, as well as live performances in unconventional spaces that incorporate elements of classical music, theater, improvisation and visual art across a range of genres including pop, hip-hop, classical and more. These performances often feature a carbon fiber cello and loop station
Her interdisciplinary exhibit The End of Time alongside internationally renowned visual artist Barron Storey’s solo exhibit Quartet at Anno Domini art gallery in downtown San Jose with her chamber music collective the Juxtapositions Chamber Ensemble received critical acclaim. The dual exhibition, created in tribute to French composer Olivier Messiaen’s seminal chamber work The Quartet for the End of Time, received mention in Juxtapoz Magazine.
A noted session musician for both recording and live performance, Cellista has worked with Grammy-nominated artist Tanya Donelly, producer John Vanderslice, Don McLean, Casey Crescenzo, and Van Dyke Parks.
Cellista is a 2014 Belle Foundation grantee. She is also a Nagel's Scholarship recipient. For her work with Messiaen's "Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps", she received the Otey Award for research writing from San Francisco State University where she attended graduate school.
Cellista's debut full-length album Finding San Jose engineered by Mayram Qudus (Doe Eye) was released in Fall of 2016. Of the album, she remarked "Most especially, this is an offering to the artists of San Jose. I owe San Jose my creative life. I see the town going through a period of rapid growth and development, and I would like to offer this album to my community in dedication of a time when San Jose used to be orchards." The album and its subsequent release as the soundtrack for an interdisciplinary ballet received favorable reviews from KQED.