Described as a “true talent" by Christophe Huss of Montreal's Le Devoir, Jason Pegis (DMA) has established himself as a dynamic and dedicated musician. Jason holds a full-time Instructor of Cello position at Colorado Mesa University and plays as Principal Cellist of Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra, in addition to staying active as a soloist and chamber musician. He holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music where he studied with Antonio Lysy and held a Teaching Associate position along with the cellist position in the graduate VEM Quartet. He additionally received a Master of Music degree on a Max Stern Fellowship from McGill University’s Schulich School of Music studying under Matt Haimovitz, and a Bachelor of Music from Willamette University mentored by Jason Duckles and Valdine Mishkin. He is incredibly grateful for the Carlsen Cello Foundation based out of Seattle, which loaned him an 1880 Neuner & Hornsteiner cello through his university degrees.
Jason has won numerous solo and chamber awards; in addition to being a national finalist of the 2014 MTNA Young Artist Chamber Music Competition, he also won the 2015 Eugene Symphony Young Artist Competition and Outstanding Cellist Award, and the 2016 Zodiac Music Festival Young Artist Award. His playing can be found on the Naxos CD “Modulation Necklace.” With an interest in researching lesser-known classical works, his 2021 dissertation Lighting the Shadows of the Canon: A Modern and Contextual Reexamination of Victor Herbert’s Cello Concerto No. 2 Op. 30 is publicly available online. Jason was featured recently in the 2023 Strings Magazine article “How Actors Become Virtuoso String Players on Film” for his work as Jenna Ortega’s cello teacher in 2021 for her starring role in Netflix’s hit Tim Burton series, Wednesday. He can be seen working with Jenna in videos from Teen Vogue and Netflix both with millions of views.
A 2020 Piatigorsky International Cello Festival Fellow, Jason has commissioned and premiered works by composers like Kristapor Najarian, Sergei Umroyan, and Quentin Lauvray. Having studied improvisation with mentors like Mike Nord and Guillaume Bourgogne, Jason enjoys improvising in a variety of styles, and composing from time to time. Jason has recorded solo cello for artists like Billboard’s chart-topping R&B artist Guordan Banks in his recent single, Tears Never Cried and has given completely unscripted concerts with musicians like Georg Hoffman and Andreas Stahel. He is also an artist for the Western Slope Concert Series, South Eastern Young Artists and Dilijan Chamber Music Series, and has performed with notable musicians such as Johannes Moser, Axel Strauss, Ettore Causa, Victor Fournelle-Blain, and Denis Bouriakov, Antonio Lysy, Varty Manouelian, and Robert deMaine. Jason also frequently works with International Cello Institute, helping to develop several of their programs. He has performed throughout the US, Canada, France, Italy, and Armenia. As a soloist, he enjoys performing concertos with both professional and student orchestras such as the UCLA Symphony Orchestra, Eugene Symphony Orchestra, Palisades Symphony (CA), Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Mesa University Symphony Orchestra, and Central High School Orchestra, and Shorewood High School Chamber Orchestra. Jason currently plays on a cello by Joseph Grubaugh & Sigrun Seifert.
