Born and raised in New York, cellist Ari Evan recently finished his fellowship at Ensemble Connect—a prestigious two-year residency at Carnegie Hall that combines first-class performance opportunities with community engagement and entrepreneurship projects. Prior to Ensemble Connect, Ari studied Timothy Eddy at the Juilliard School, where he received his master’s degree in 2017. A versatile chamber musician, Ari has performed with renowned artists including Shmuel Ashkenasi, Colin Carr, Miriam Fried, Gary Hoffman, Hsin-Yun Huang, Ani Kavafian, Itzhak Perlman. Robert McDonald, current/former members of the Cleveland Quartet, Artemis Quartet, as well as members of the Berlin Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, and Met Opera Orchestra. His festival appearances include the Krzyzowa Music Festival, Ravinia, IMS Prussia Cove, the Perlman Music Program, the Olympic Music Festival, and many others. Passionate about community engagement and teaching, Ari is the founder of the Forest Hills Chamber Music Series, striving to promote Jewish music and bringing classical music to the community he grew up in. Since September 2020, he is an Artist in Residence in the cello section of the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, under the tutelage of Gary Hoffman.