Christopher Ellis, cello (Dublin, Ireland) holds degrees from Conservatoire Nationale Supérieure de Musique et Danse Paris and Rice University, and currently resides in Houston, Texas. Christopher enjoys an active performing schedule, playing with groups such as Loop38, Musiqa, Kinetic Ensemble and the Houston Symphony Orchestra. As a Dacamera Young Artist, he performs regularly throughout Houston, while engaging with the Houston community in musical visits to public schools. Christopher has performed internationally at SuperCello Festival Beijing, Piatigorsky Cello Festival Los Angeles, Cello Biennale Amsterdam and across France, Germany and the Netherlands. In Ireland, his recent highlights include performing and teaching at the National Concert Hall’s International Master Course Festival and making his debut as soloist with the Irish Chamber Orchestra. He won the 2023 Doug Davis performance award and the Prix Ravel from Fontainebleau Academie, France, and he will soon play at the UN Summit in Geneva, Switzerland in a performance fusing the worlds of music, dance and neuroscience. Christopher plays on a C.A. Testore cello made in 1764, generously loaned to him by his former teacher and mentor Aisling Drury Byrne.