Cécilia Tsan
Cellist
“Uncompromising musical character and a towering technique… In the breadth of her virtuosity and the charisma of her musical personality, Tsan made this work her own.” (Daniel Cariaga/Los Angeles Times, Haydn D Major Concerto).
Born in France, Cécilia Tsan began playing the cello with the same teacher as her childhood friend Yo-Yo Ma. After majoring in Philosophy and Chinese, she was accepted at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris under André Navarra, and was awarded the 1st Prize for Cello summa cum laude and the 1st Prize for Chamber Music. She is a prizewinner at the Barcelona International Competition, the Florence International Competition and the winner of the Debussy Prize at the Paris International Competition.
Ms Tsan toured throughout the world not only as a soloist, but also as an avid chamber musician with Rudolf Firkusny, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Bruno Rigutto, Pascal Rogé, Pierre Amoyal, Augustin Dumay, Martin Chalifour, Hatto Beyerle, Gérard Caussé, Bruno Pasquier, Paul Neubauer, Heiichiro Ohyama…
She regularly performs on the radio and for television and films. Since she moved to Los Angeles, she has been recording hundreds of movie soundtracks with many composers such as John Williams, James Horner, Randy Newman, Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, David Newman, Jerry Goldsmith, Alan Silvestri, Alexandre Desplat, James Newton-Howard, John Debney to name a few. She recorded a CD (Eleven pieces for Cello and Piano) and two CDs of chamber music by Weber and Ropartz. More recently the double album “John Williams Reimagined” (piano-flute-cello) was released by Warners Classics to critical acclaim.
She currently plays as Principal Cellist with the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. She also served in that position at the Academy Awards, the Emmys, American Idols and America’s Got Talent.
Besides many chamber music performances, her recent concerts include “Memoirs of a Geisha” by John Williams, the Elgar and Dvorak Cello Concerti as well as Brahms Double Concerto. In January 2026, she performed Strauss masterpiece “Don Quixote” with the Long Beach Symphony conducted by Eckart Preu.
Since 2017, she has been the Artistic Director of the music series, “Sunday Afternoon Concerts in the Dome” at Mount Wilson Observatory: those concerts have been sold out for the past two years.