Principal Cello
Where were you born?
Versailles, France
What college did you attend?
Conservatoire National Supéieur de Musique de Paris, under the great André Navarra
University of Paris (Major in Philosophy and Chinese)
What inspired you to start playing music?
My parents: Father was a composer, violinist and conductor, and my mother was a violinist and composer. They both graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory, the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome (that’s where I got my name from!) and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris.
Why did you choose your principal instrument?
Yo-Yo Ma and his parents were our closest friends in Paris. We all were Chinese immigrants there. So after I heard him play so beautifully as a very young child, I asked my mom to let me play the cello. His father took me to the same teacher. That is how I began playing the cello.
What other instruments do you play?
I used to play a little bit of piano but that was a long time ago…
When did you start playing with the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra (what year)?
2000
With what other orchestras do you perform?
Earlier in Paris I played with the Paris Opera and the Orchestre de Paris. I also was principal cello for other Orchestras in France. In California, I was principal cello with the Asia America Symphony and the New West Symphony. I occasionally play(ed) as principal cello for the Pasadena Symphony, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the San Diego Symphony, Los Angeles Master Chorale and for some recording sessions.
Have you performed for any of the following, and if so, who or what?
Film
Recorded many movies scores with composers such as John Williams, James Horner, Jerry Goldsmith, Randy Newman, David Newman, James Newton-Howard, Alan Silvestri, Danny Elfman, Bill Ross, Don Davis, Elmer Bernstein, Howard Shore, John Barry and many more.
Other:
I was invited to play a solo on stage with Randy Newman and Sarah McLaughlin at the 2000 Academy Awards. Just recorded a voice and cello version of the Star Spangled Banner with Vanessa Carlton, for the All Star Baseball Game (Chicago, July 2003). Other personal recordings are “11 Pieves for Cello and Piano” (Cybelia, sold out), Weber: Flute Trio and Piano Quartet (Timpani), Ropartz: Piano Trio (that recording got international awards in several music magazine in Europe), Clare Fischer “Suite for Cello and String Orchestra” (after we recorded the central movement of the suite that he composed at age eighteen, he decided to write two more movements for me and we recorded them in 1999). I also recorded Beethoven A Major & Brahms E minor Sonatas for Cello and Piano with Pianist Robert Thies (Yamaha Disklavier).
Who is your favorite composer?
Schubert and Brahms. Many other of course, like Bach, Mozart, Debussy and Ravel.
Why?
I am the ultimate romantic and their music touches my heart the most. How can you not get “goose bumps” listening to Schubert Impromptus for piano, his chamber music, Brahms Symphonies and his passionate chamber music, too!
What is your favorite orchestral work?
The list is long but here are a few: Brahms’ 4th Symphony, Strauss’s Last Four Songs (listen to Gundula Janowitz and Herbert von Karajan/Deutsch Gramophon!) and Ravel’s Ma Mere l’Oye.
What do you enjoy doing besides music?
Music, more music, chamber music (cannot live without it!), spending time with my daughter, my family, my friends, visiting France and being immersed in the European culture, Art (I used to do a lot of calligraphy and Chinese painting in my early childhood), sewing (when I had more time I designed and made all my clothes, including concert dresses, fancy knitted sweaters and even bathing suits!), cooking (French, Italian, Japanese and Chinese) for special people, gourmet cuisine and great wines, exercising, the tropics (went to Tahiti five times), traveling (my concerts took me all over the world and I feel blessed to have discovered so many different cultures) and foreign languages (I speak French, English, Italian, Spanish, some Chinese and some German).
What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
Only sherbets, mostly the ones from Bertilhon in Paris and the ones from Piazza San Croce in Florence!
Do you have family, kids, or pets that you’d like to share something about?
My beautiful loving daughter Clara (who was named after Clara Schumann and Clara Malraux) is the joy of my life and also my best friend.
You can visit Cécilia’s website at this address: www.ceciliatsan.com
