Described as “an assured soloist” with “fearless technique,” Dr. Cecilia Huerta-Lauf brings passion and heart to her performances as an accomplished cellist. A native of Dickson, Tennessee, she made her solo debut with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra at age 16. Cecilia has enjoyed tenures with groups such as the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Discovery Ensemble, Florida Grand Opera, and the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra & founding String Quartet, and founding administrative director/principal cellist of the Boston Latin-American Orchestra. In 2012, Cecilia was a semi-finalist in the Carlos Prieto International Cello Competition. Currently, Cecilia is the founder, co-director, & cellist of NouLou Chamber Players; and substitutes with the Louisville Orchestra. She also served as President of the Chamber Music Society of Louisville Board. Cecilia has participated in music festivals across the United States, Canada, France, and Italy. Degrees include pre-college at Vanderbilt University, B.M. at DePaul University in Chicago, M.M. at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, and her D.M.A. at University of Miami in FL.

New Jersey-native Lindy Tsai began playing the cello at the age of four and has been a member of the Louisville Orchestra since 2019. She received her Master’s degree at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts under Yeesun Kim, and prior to that received her Bachelor’s degree and Performer’s Diploma at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music under Eric Kim. She also briefly attended the Eastman School of Music where she studied with Steven Doane. Throughout her career, Lindy has performed with many world-renown musicians such as Joshua Bell, David Finckel, Yo-Yo Ma, Wu Han, Steven Isserlis, Fred Sherry, Timothy Eddy, Carter Brey, Paul Katz, Rafael Figueroa, Colin Carr, and Jian Wang. She has performed in dozens of concert halls around the United States and Asia, most notably when she made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2007 at the age of 15. Her performances have also been broadcasted on New York’s classical music radio station WQXR as well as NPR. Lindy also attended many music festivals over the years such as Aspen Music Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, and Music Master’s Course in Yokohama, Japan, run by the New York Philharmonic’s previous music director Alan Gilbert as well as the Tokyo, Kyoto, and Ryukyu Symphony Orchestra’s music director Naoto Otomo. Lindy currently plays on a 2014 Jason Viseltear cello from New York City.

A “long-admired figure on the New York scene” (New Yorker), cellist Michael Nicolas enjoys a diverse career as chamber musician, soloist, recording artist, improvisor, and teacher. His eclectic tastes and adventurous spirit have led him to forge a musical path of uncommon breadth, where his activities range from performing the masterpieces of the past in the world's most prestigious concert halls, to free improvisation in downtown experimental venues, to working with contemporary composers of all styles, pushing the boundaries of musical expression and meaning.

The ensembles Michael plays in illustrate his commitment to that musical diversity. He is the cellist of the Grammy-nominated string quartet Brooklyn Rider, an intrepid and genre-defying group which has drawn praise from classical, world music, and rock critics alike. As a member of the acclaimed International Contemporary Ensemble, he has worked with countless composers from around the world, premiering and recording dozens of new works. Another group, Third Sound, which Michael helped found, made its debut with an historic residency at the 2015 Havana Contemporary Music Festival, in Cuba. Earlier in his career, he played for almost a decade with the wildly popular Korean chamber group Ensemble Ditto, and also held a post as Associate Principal Cellist of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal.

As a soloist, Michael has performed recitals and concertos across the globe. His album Transitions, available on the Sono Luminus label, was named Q2 Music Album of the Week at WQXR upon release, and it has since garnered critical acclaim across North America. His discography comprises over 50 recordings as soloist, chamber musician, and sideman.

Of mixed French-Canadian and Taiwanese heritage, Michael was born in Canada, and currently resides in New York City, where he is on the cello faculty at The Mannes School of Music at The New School. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School.

Since performing as a concerto soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at age 18, Nicholas Finch has established himself as an artist of great depth and diversity - as a solo cellist, recitalist, orchestral principal, chamber musician, conductor, founder, and curator. The 2024/25 season will see Finch lead the fourth year of the Derby City Chamber Music Festival as its Founder and Artistic Director, which over its past three seasons has featured musicians from the Dover Quartet, the Escher String Quartet, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and more. As part of the festival, he leads the Derby City Sinfonietta as its conductor, which has featured musicians from the Boston Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Louisville Orchestra, and more. He has additionally been featured as a guest conductor with the Louisville Orchestra. A highlight of the upcoming 2024/25 season includes performing Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's "Double Concerto" as cello soloist with the Louisville Orchestra, and as cello soloist in Saint-Saens's Cello Concerto in A minor and as conductor in Beethoven's "Egmont" overture with the Melrose Symphony. Finch recently recorded his debut album "Nou Edition" with the NouLou Chamber Players, featuring three world-premiere cello concertos written for him, to be released in the spring of 2025. He recently performed as a secondary soloist with cellist Yo-Yo Ma in Teddy Abrams' 'Mammoth', performed by the Louisville Orchestra inside Mammoth Cave National Park. He also performed the American premiere of Kelly-Marie Murphy's concerto for cello and harp with the Skagit Symphony in Mt. Vernon, Washington. He served as cello artist-faculty at the Eastern Music Festival in the Summers of 2022-2024. In recent seasons, Finch has collaborated with musicians from the Louisville Orchestra and others in the role of conductor, in works by Strauss, Copland, Glinka, Saint-Saens, Elgar, Dvorak, and more. Just months prior to the onset of COVID-19, he appeared as cello soloist in Richard Strauss's "Don Quixote" with the Louisville Orchestra. Finch was appointed Principal Cellist of the Louisville Orchestra by music director Teddy Abrams. He has appeared with the Boston-based chamber orchestra ‘A Far Cry’ on numerous concerts and recordings, one recording having been nominated for a Grammy Award. He has additionally appeared numerous times with the Jupiter Chamber Players in New York City A native of Boston, Finch began his cello studies at the age of 12. He attended Harvard, Juilliard, the University of Michigan, and the Mannes College of Music, studying the cello with Andrew Mark, David Soyer, Harvey Shapiro, Richard Aaron, and Marcy Rosen. He has studied orchestral conducting with Kenneth Kiesler, Markand Thakar, Gerard Schwarz, and Michael Jinbo and Ludovic Morlot at the Pierre Monteux School. During the 2023-24 season, Finch was on leave of absence from the Louisville Orchestra to earn a second Masters Degree from the University of Michigan, this time in Orchestral Conducting.