Phoebe Carrai

Phoebe Carrai, a native Bostonian, attained her Bachelors and Masters of Music at the New England Conservatory of Music studying with Laurence Lesser.  It was here that Ms. Carrai discovered her path with early music. After winning the BeeBee Foundation grant in 1979, she moved to Austria to do post-graduate work with Nikolaus Harnoncourt at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

After freelancing in Europe and the United States she accepted a full-time position with Musica Antiqua Köln and lived in Cologne from 1983-1993. After touring the world, giving master classes, making 40 discs with Deutsche Gramophone and teaching at the Hillversum Conservatory in Holland, she returned to Boston.Ms. Carrai has taught at the Conservatory of the Arts in Berlin, Germany and is now on the faculties of the Juilliard School, and the Longy School of Music of Bard College. She is director of the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra and co- director of the International Baroque Institute. She also travels yearly to give classes and perform at the Curitiba Festival in Brazil and the Handel Festival in Karlsruhe. In July of 2016, she will serve on the jury of the Leipzig Bach Competition.

In addition to chamber music and solo appearances, Ms. Carrai performs regularly with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, The Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra and Chamber Ensemble, Göttingen Händel Festspiel Orchestra and Festspiel Ensemble and The Arcadian Academy.

Ms. Carrai's recording of the six Bach suites for solo Violoncello and Duets of August Kummer can be found on the Avie label. She has also recorded for Harmonia Mundi, Deutsche Gramophone, Aetma, Telarc, Decca and BMG.

Ms. Carrai plays on a circa 1690 restored Italian cello.