About

Sought after for her “radiant” (The New York Times) performances full of “tremendous heart, bringing joy and a captivating sound to the stage” (The Strad), Karen Ouzounian is a GRAMMY®-nominated cellist and composer who champions and creates a remarkable breadth of music with fierce commitment and emotional power. She has collaborated with some of the most singular musicians of our time, including Yo-Yo Ma, Rhiannon Giddens and Augustin Hadelich, and has appeared as a soloist in venues including the Konzerthaus Berlin, Elbphilharmonie, Kölner Philharmonie, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, and Carnegie Hall, as well as at leading festivals including Marlboro, Ojai, Caramoor, and Ravinia. Recent milestones include her solo debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Kayhan Kalhor’s double cello-kamancheh concerto Venus in the Mirror at the 2026 Tanglewood Festival, and concertos written for her by Lembit Beecher (Tell Me Again) and Anna Clyne (Shorthand). As a composer, recent commissions include works for the Aeolus Quartet, Silkroad Ensemble, Salt Bay Chamberfest and the Cello Teaching Repertoire Consortium, and in 2024 she premiered Dear Mountains, a major work co-composed with Beecher for chorus, solo cello, oud, and percussion, commissioned by Cantori New York. She is currently touring Mayrig (“mother” in Armenian), an intimate and immersive show in which the voices of her mother and grandmother are interwoven with songs and stories from her family’s ancestral homes of Anatolia and Lebanon, contemporary works, and the music of Charles Aznavour and Marin Marais. She performs as a member of the Silkroad Ensemble and The Knights, and was the founding cellist of the Aizuri Quartet for 11 years, earning major chamber music prizes on three continents and serving as the String Quartet-in-Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Read More.