Alison Bazala

Biography

Dr. Bazala has performed in recital as a soloist and chamber musician both in the United States and internationally. Her recitals in the U.S. have taken place in Houston, Miami Beach, Boston, and at the Embassy of Romania in Washington, D.C. She performed frequently at the Lincoln Theater in Miami Beach, appeared at the Wintergarden World Financial Center in New York City, and in Jordan Hall, Boston. Bazala was a featured concerto soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado.

Her East European tour included recitals at both the Skopje Summer Festival and the Ohrid Annual Music Festival in Macedonia, the Bratislava Music Festival in the Slovak Republic, and in Bulgaria. Other recital tours include Jamaica and the Cayman Islands where she performed to critical acclaim. In Kosovo, she appeared as a soloist in their annual Bach Festival. In Albania, she appeared as a concerto soloist and is one of the first Americans to perform there after decades of isolationism.

Sponsored by the Eastman School of Music, Bazala was the first American soloist to appear in Sarajevo after the war where she performed at the National Theater as part of the twelfth annual Sarajevo Winter Festival. She also performed at the Dom Armije concert hall and at IFOR (NATO) headquarters. Bazala toured Bosnia again in January 1999, performing at the Banski Dvor Concert Hall in Banja Luca, the Pavarotti Center and Dom Hrvatski in Mostar and the Dom Armije in Sarajevo. She performed and gave a masterclass at the Sarajevo Music Academy. Her concerts were broadcast on television and radio.

Bazala was a member of the New World Symphony of Miami Beach, Florida under the direction of internationally renowned conductor Michael Tilson Thomas. She performed with the orchestra in Alice Tully and Avery Fisher Halls in New York and the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., toured South America, Monte Carlo, and Israel, and recorded with the orchestra on the Argo-Decca label. She was Principal Cellist of the Greater Lansing Symphony Orchestra and also played with the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra. Bazala was Associate Principal Cellist with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra in Virginia. She has acted as the Associate Principal Cellist with the Annapolis Symphony and is a member of the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra. As a chamber musician, Bazala has performed at the Washington Arts Club, Frederick Community College and at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland.

From 1998-2001 Bazala was on the faculty at Michigan State University as a cello instructor and the director of the chamber music program of the Community Music School. Currently, she is on the faculty of Anne Arundel Community College, Columbia Union College and Hood College and is the Orchestra Director at St. Andrew's Episcopal School. Dr. Bazala also maintains a private studio.

Dr. Bazala holds degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music, Rice University and the University of Maryland where she performed the cello solo of Don Quixote with the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra. She also studied at the Eastman School of Music. Her principal teachers were David Hardy, Peter Wiley, David Soyer, Paul Katz, Fritz Magg and Colin Carr. She has performed in masterclasses for Janos Starker and Steven Isserlis and has participated in numerous summer festivals, including Tanglewood, the American Russian Youth Orchestra and the National Orchestral Institute.

Last updated on August 8, 2006.