Juliana Soltis & Ruoting Li
Biography Juliana Soltis & Ruoting Li
Juliana Soltis
Raised amidst the diverse musical traditions of southern Appalachia, cellist Juliana Soltis inspires audiences the world over with “exquisite, heart-rending” (Early Music America) performances that are redefining classical music. A “true virtuoso” (Classical Music), Juliana delights if connecting listeners with the forgotten stories of classical music.
Hailed as one of the most fearlessly innovative and creative cellists of her generation for her “serious musicianship and inquiring mind” (Gramophone), Ms. Soltis has headlined the BRQ Vantaa (Finland) Fringe Series for Emerging Artists, appeared at the Boston Early Music Festival, and been featured on the Millennium Stage Series at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.
A passionate recording artist, Juliana’s 2017 debut, Entrez, le Diable! (Acis), garnered both international attention and critical acclaim – “[a] fierce display of impassioned rhetoric” (Gramophone) – with Classical Music’s Colin Clarke proclaiming it “beyond criticism” and “a stunning release.” Her eagerly-anticipated sophomore offering, Going Off Script (King Street Records, 2019) met with similar praise for upending the interpretation of one of classical music’s most revered composers with an unprecedented exploration of the long-lost art of spontaneous improvisation in Bach’s beloved Cello Suites: “You’ve never heard Bach played this way before” declared Steve Staruch (Classical Minnesota Public Radio), while Japan’s Yomiuri Shinbun marveled that “never did one think the heart could be so moved by a cello alone.”
Ever drawn to the fringes of her art form, in October 2024 Ms. Soltis will release her third studio album, American Woman, on the PARMA Recording Group’s Grammy-winning Navona label. Featuring works for cello and piano by Mary Howe, Amy Beach, Margaret Bonds, Helen Crane, Dorothy Rudd Moore, and Florence Price, the album celebrates the lost legacy of America’s “other” composers – all of whom were highly-acclaimed during their individual lifetimes, but whose music nevertheless fell into obscurity following their deaths. “I feel that I have been preparing all my life to play this music,” Juliana said of her upcoming release, noting that some of these works have been waiting over a century to be heard. “These women deserve their place in the narrative of our shared musical history, and I feel both honored and humbled to tell their stories.”
A devoted performer-scholar. Juliana holds degrees from the New England Conservatory, Ball State University, The Longy School of Music, and Oberlin Conservatory; her primary studies having been conducted under the tutelage of Yeesun Kim, Richard Aaron, Phoebe Carrai, and Catharina Meints Caldwell.
When not touring, recording, or climbing the library stacks researching her next project, Juliana can be found at home in historic Church Hill in Richmond, VA, where she enjoys gardening (with some success), hunting for vintage vinyl, and binge-watching reruns of The French Chef with her two rescue greyhounds, Rain and Ceci.
