Rebecca Gilmore Phillips, native of North Carolina, joined the Virginia Symphony Orchestra in the fall of 1999. Currently she is Assistant Principal Cello with the VSO. In 2010, Ms. Gilmore Phillips was broadcast live on NPR for a performance of Schubert’s Guitar Quartet with JoAnn Falletta. In February 2016 she is thrilled to be performing the “Beethoven Triple Concerto” with her VSO colleagues.
Prior to being in Virginia, she performed as Principal Cellist of The Greensboro Symphony where she made her solo debut of Tchaikovsky’s “Rococo Variations”. Much earlier in her career she soloed with the Charlotte Symphony and the Charlotte Repertory Orchestra and the latter with which she performed Haydn’s “Cello Concerto in D Major”.
Around the Hampton Roads area, Ms. Gilmore Phillips has been a featured solo and chamber artist with the Virginia Arts Festival, The Virginia Symphony and the Norfolk Chamber Consort. Her cello career has traveled up the east coast to perform with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra as well as in countries all over the world. Within the United States she has both taught and performed with numerous music festivals including the New England Music Camp (Maine), the Breckenridge Music Festival Orchestra, The Brevard Music Center, Garth Newel Chamber Music Center and the North Carolina School of the Arts’ International Music Program where she performed Saint-Saens’ “Cello Concerto” with their orchestra in ten major cities throughout Europe. During a residency in Canada with pianist/composer, Gabriela Frank, a world premiere performance of “Ríos Profundos” led to a recording titled, “It Won’t Be The Same River”. In 2006, her Breckenridge Music Festival Orchestra recorded Piazzolla’s “Four Seasons”.
Ms. Gilmore Phillips’ passion for chamber music has been the impetus for a quartet journey, comprised of professionals from the VSO, notably, Ambrosia Quartet, which began in 2002. The group has been featured twice on the Feldman Chamber Music Society Series and the Williamsburg Regional Library series. Ambrosia Quartet is exploring future recordings and travel abroad.
Ms. Gilmore holds degrees in Cello Performance from Indiana and Rice Universities. Her teachers include Janos Starker, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Norman Fischer and Desmond Hoebig. As a teacher herself, Ms. Gilmore Phillips “carries the torch” by working with kids throughout the Hampton Roads area through the VSO’s Community Engagement Program as well as maintaining a private cello studio.
rebeccagilmore.com | ambrosiaquartet.com
