2025 CSYO Concerto Competition Winner
Sixteen-year-old cellist Autumn Rinaldi lives in Indian Hill and is a sophomore at Cincinnati Country Day School. Rinaldi discovered her passion for the cello at age 5, when she heard one being played at a birthday party, and began private studies immediately thereafter. Rinaldi currently studies with Dr. Sarah Kim, professor of cello at Miami University. She also considers CSO cellist/CCM professor Alan Rafferty and professor Hans Jørgen Jensen at Northwestern University influential teachers and mentors. Rinaldi has played in masterclasses for esteemed cellists Richard Aaron, Sterling Elliott, Melissa Kraut, Astrid Schween and Bruce Uchimura, as well as in chamber masterclasses led by members of the Aizuri, Brentano and Cavani quartets. Rinaldi has been a member of the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestras for the past four seasons and has served as Assistant Principal Cello of its Philharmonic ensemble the past two. This past winter, Rinaldi served as principal cellist of the 2025 OMEA All-State Orchestra and principal cellist of the 2024 OMEA Southwest Regional Orchestra. Rinaldi is thrilled and honored for the opportunity to perform Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with her fellow CSYO musicians this season.
As the Senior Strings winner of the 2024 Jack and Lucille Wonnell Memorial Competition, Rinaldi made her solo debut this past March with the Blue Ash Montgomery Symphony Orchestra. Other solo competitions in which she has been recognized include the 2025 CSYO Philharmonic Concerto Competition (second place), the 2024 Cleveland Cello Society Scholarship Competition (first place), the 2023 OhioMTA State Buckeye Auditions (first place), and the 2021 and 2023 Jack and Lucille Wonnell Memorial Concerto Competition (second place, senior and junior divisions). She has been invited to perform various engagements, most notably in a CelloBello-sponsored event last June with renowned cellist Astrid Schween and the Verona Quartet.
Rinaldi has attended numerous camps and festivals, including Meadowmount School of Music (2023, 2024), Ascent International Cello Festival (2023, 2024), Greenwood Chamber Music Camp Senior Division (2022) and Chamber Music Connection Summer Festival (2021). An avid chamber musician with a love for collaboration, Rinaldi has played in various ensembles with the Chamber Music Connection in Columbus, OH since 2020. Recently, Rinaldi has combined her interest in singing with cello, performing vocal-cello duos with fellow CSYO Philharmonic cellist Sonya Moomaw.
Aside from cello, Rinaldi enjoys music composition and theater (especially Shakespeare). Her composition, Walk, for violin and percussion, which she composed as a 2024 Fellow with the composition program Cincinnati: From Scratch! was premiered and recorded by CSO percussionist Joe Bricker and violinist Hannah Christiansen. Walk was also choreographed in the 2024–25 season by Taylor Carrasco for performance by the Second Company of the Cincinnati Ballet. On the acting side, Rinaldi is an active member of the Country Day Theater Club and has performed in lead roles in the past two school productions.
In her free time, Rinaldi loves to read, draw, bake and go skiing with her family.