Member Directory

Renata Bratt

Cello Teacher SAA Member

Cellist Renata Bratt (www.renatabratt.com) tours with New Almaden Trio (jazz), Reel of 7 (Celtic) and Cindy Lee Berryhill (rock), performs weekly in a church jazz and gospel band, teaches cello, chamber music and beginning string orchestra in Santa Cruz, California and is a founding member of the ASTA Alternative Styles Advisory Committee. She is the 2012 and 2013 Kuumbwa Jazz Artist In Residence and writes books for Mel Bay as well as jazz, fiddle and rock string orchestra, quintet and quartet arrangements for Alfred Publishing and String Letter Publishing in her spare time. Renata performs weekly in a church jazz and gospel band and teaches cello, chamber music (including small combos) and beginning string orchestra in Santa Cruz, California.

With a thriving career in classical music performing with symphony orchestras and chamber music groups (with her pianist Santos Cota she was an invited soloist for the Spanish Embassy in Rome), she turned to jazz, fiddling and bluegrass music after a mind-expanding concert by the Turtle Island String Quartet in the late eighties. Her articles on a variety of non-classical string performance have been published in Strings magazine, the Journal of the American String Teacher, The American Suzuki Journal and the Jazz Education Journal.

She has taught classical styles, jazz improvisation and fiddling at national string workshops and clinics for children and adults including Alasdair Fraser’s camps, the Mark O’Connor String Conference, the Mandolin Symposium, Wintergrass, the National Cello Institute, the Mancini Institute, ASTA, MENC and Suzuki institutes and conferences. Renata has performed with luminaries such as Liz Carroll and John Doyle, Darol Anger and Alasdair Fraser and played back-up with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, David Sanborn, Lyle Lovett, and Dionne Warwick. Rolling Stone dubbed her an “ace performer” for her work recording and touring with alternative rocker Cindy Lee Berryhill’s Garage Orchestra.

She received her Ph.D. in Music from the University of California at San Diego, a Master’s degree in Music Performance from California State University at Northridge, a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pomona College and is a past president of the Suzuki Music Association of California and the International Association for Jazz Education String Caucus. Her original CDs, “Pacific Cello,” “A Slice of Summer,” “Great Big Taters” and “Jazz Trio 2006” are available through CD Baby.