Ezra Escobar

Lauded as “vibrant” and “gifted” (Chicago Classical Review), Chicago-born Filipino-American cellist Ezra Escobar maintains a prolific output as a multigenre cellist, composer, arranger, and music producer. He made his orchestral debut at age 16 with the Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago and was a guest soloist with the Lake Forest Civic Orchestra. Other concert engagements include the Fil-Am Music Foundation, the Young Steinway Concert Series, the Evanston Chamber Music Festival, and the Waukegan Chamber Music Society. Highlights of the 2022 season include a residency at Birdland with famed jazz clarinetist Ken Peplowski and a collaboration with activist music collective Sound Off in support of Red Canary Song.

Ezra has performed with ensembles such as the Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra, the Chicago Philharmonic, Lake Forest Symphony, and Skokie Valley Symphony orchestras., and has concertized at venues such as Symphony Center in Chicago, Alice Tully Hall, Pritzker Pavilion, Ravinia Festival’s Bennett Gordon Hall, and Pick-Staiger Hall at Northwestern University. Ezra has served as principal cello of the Mannes Orchestra and the Kankakee Valley Symphony.

He has won prizes at the DePaul Concerto Festival, the Chinese Fine Arts Society Music Festival in Honor of Confucius, and the Walgreens National Concerto Competition. His compositions have been premiered at Bennett Gordon Hall at Ravinia Festival and the Heifetz Institute. Festival appearances include the Heifetz Institute, the Interlochen Arts Camp, the Chicago Youth in Music Festival, and the Cincinnati Young Artists Fellowship Program.

For several years, Ezra taught in the Midwest Young Artists Conservatory Young Music Scholars program, which aids children and teens without the financial means to enroll in music lessons. He is a resident artist of the Fil-Am Music Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting exceptional Filipino classical musicians through scholarship assistance and performance opportunities.

Ezra is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree at the Mannes School of Music at The New School under the tutelage of Marcy Rosen, having previously studied with Dr. Tanya Carey at the Music Institute of Chicago. Additional studies include lessons and master classes with Johannes Moser, Hans Jensen, Timothy Eddy, Colin Carr, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Matt Haimovitz, Amit Peled, Astrid Schween, Eric Kim, Rafael Figueroa, & Fred Sherry, among others, and his chamber music mentors have included members of the Emerson, Borromeo, American, Kronos, Vermeer, Jupiter, Mendelssohn, and Pacifica quartets.