Cellist Michael Carrera has performed in the halls of New York, Paris, and London, and has been heard in radio performances on Germany’s MDR, France’s Radio 3, and National Public Radio. The latter includes appearances on Performance Today, amonge these a live broadcast of a musical and theatrical adventure, Bernardo’s Farewell . Dr. Carrera has performed solos and concerti with the Utah Symphony, Idaho Falls Symphony, East-West Music Festival Orchestra (Germany), Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, and the Sutter Symphony Orchestra. He is currently the Artistic Director of the Juniper Chamber Music Festival in Utah. Since graduating from the Manhattan School of Music, he has performed over 400 concerts throughout the United States and Europe as a founding member of the Arcata String Quartet. The quartet made its Carnegie debut at the Weill Recital Hall in 2001 after finishing a two year contract with the Community Concerts Series that took them across the U.S. The quartet also played at London’s prestigious Wigmore Hall and received rave reviews for their performances at the Rheingau Music Festival in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Michael has played in numerous music festivals including the Grand Canyon Music Festival, the Bravo! Vail Valley Festival in Colorado, the Aspen Music Festival, the Park City International Music Festival, the Great Music West Festival, and the Flathead Music Festival in Montana. He has collaborated and performed with the Tokyo and Borromeo String Quartets, and members of the Guarneri, American, and Emerson String Quartets. Individual collaborations include Peter Rejto, Pamela Frank, Charles Castleman, Eugenia Zukerman, Gail Niwa, Kenneth Cooper, and Paul Colleti.

In world premiere performances, Michael has presented the works of Paul Chihara, Judith Shatin, David Noon, Nils Vigeland and William Campbell. As a member of the Arcata Quartet, Michael can be heard on a CD of works by Paul Chihara in Forever Escher , an octet with the Amherst Saxophone Quartet. The Arcata also performed the world premiere of Chihara’s Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra, Kisses Sweeter than Wine, with the Utah Symphony and conductor Keith Lockhart. Other compact discs by the Arcata Quartet (all on the VOX label) include a recording of Borodin’s Quartet in A minor and Cello Quintet in F minor with David Geber. Additional Arcata Quartet releases include a recording of Respighi’s Quartetto Dorico (paired with the Tokyo Quartet’s recording of Il Tromonto with singer Renata Scoto) and a compact disc featuring Brahms’ Sextets with guests Kikuei Ideda and Peter Rejto.

Prior to joining the Ohio University faculty in 2002, Carrera served on the faculty at Utah State University as Artist-in-Residence from 1998-2002.

Michael performs on a cello made in Italy in the early 1720s by an unknown maker.