Raised amidst the diverse musical traditions of southern Appalachia, cellist JULIANA SOLTIS inspires global audiences with her “exquisite, heart-rending” (Early Music America) performances that are redefining classical music. A “true virtuoso” (Classical Music), Juliana delights in connecting listeners to the forgotten stories of classical music.

Juliana is one of the most fearlessly innovative and creative cellists of her generation and has been hailed by Gramophone for her “serious musicianship and inquiring mind.” She has headlined Finland’s BEQ Vantaa Fringe Series for Emerging Artists, appeared at the Boston Early Music Festival, and been featured in recital at New York City’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.

A passionate recording artist, Juliana’s debut album, Entrez, le Diable! (Acis, 2017), garnered both international attention and critical acclaim - “[a] fierce display of impassioned rhetoric” (Gramophone), with Classical Music’s Colin Clarke’s proclaiming it “beyond criticism” and “a stunning release.” Her eagerly anticipated sophomore offering, Going Off Script (King Street Records, 2019) was met with similarly enthusiastic praise for her unprecedented and highly taboo exploration of the long-lost art of improvisation in Bach’s beloved Cello Suites: “You’ve never heard Bach played this way before,” declared Steve Staruch of 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.”

In 2024, Juliana Soltis partnered with PARMA Recording Groups Grammy®-winning Navona label for her third studio album, American Woman. Released to near-instant acclaim - including a Silver Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Classical Music at the Global Music Awards and a coveted four stars from BBC Music Magazine - it, lauded as “an impassioned statement” (Gramophone), celebrates the lost legacy of America’s women composers, all of whom were highly acclaimed during their individual lifetimes, but whose music fell into obscurity following their deaths. “I feel that I have been preparing all my life to play this music,” Juliana said of this album, noting that some of these works have been waiting over a century to be heard again. ‘These women deserve their places 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, with her primary studies having been undertaken with Yeesun Kim, Richard Aaron, Phoebe Carrai and Catharina Meints Caldwell.

Depending upon the repertoire to be performed, Juliana draws from a trio of instruments: Baroque cello, “Grace” (Andreas Ferdinand Mayr, Salzburg, 1677); Violoncello piccolo, “Beeder” (unknown Tyrolian craftsman, c1850); Modern cello, “The Jacoby Foxfire” (Christopher Jacoby (2025).

When not touring, recording, or climbing the library stacks to research her next project, Juliana Soltis 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, Ceci and Rocky.

www.julianasoltismusic.com

NB: Entries with an asterisk (*) denote works that can be performed on either historical OR modern cello.

AMRHEIN, Karen

Concerto

BACH, C.P.E.

Concerto in A, Wq. 172 *
Concerto in a, Wq. 170 *
Concerto in B-flat, Wq. 171 *

BOCCHERINI

Concerto in B-flat, G. 482 *
Concerto in D, G. 479 *

BOSMANS, Henriëtte

Concerto #2 in a (1923)
Poême

CASSADÓ, Gaspar

Concerto in d (1926)

DOHNÁNYI, Ernő

Konzertstück in D, Op. 12 *

DVORÁK

Concerto in b, Op. 104 *

GINASTERA

Concerto #2, Op. 50 (1980)

HASSE, Johann Adolf

Concerto in D *

HAYDN

Concerto #1 in C *
Concerto #2 in D *

HERTEL, Johann Wilhelm

Concerto in a *
Concerto in A *

LALO

Concerto in d

MONN, Georg Matthias

Concerto in g *  (arranged by Arnold Schoenberg)

RAPOPORT, Eda Rothstein

Lamentations

ROREM, Ned

Concerto (2002)

SAINT-SAËNS

Concerto #1 in a, Op. 33

THOMSON, Virgil

Concerto (1950)

VASKS, Pēteris

Concerto

VIVALDI

Concerto in b *
Concerto in G *
Double Concerto in g *

WALTON

  Concerto (1956)

WEINBERG, Mieczysław

Concertino, Op. 43bis (cello & strings)
Concerto, Op. 43

	"AMERICAN WOMAN: HELEN CRANE - AN ELEGY REDISCOVERED" An Elegy, Op. 57 with Emile Blondel, pianist Navona Records CD: 6822 (available from Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube, Tidal, Deezer)
	"AMERICAN WOMAN" Amy Beach: Three Pieces, Op. 40 Margaret Bonds: Troubled Water Helen Crane: Six Idylls for Cello & Piano, Op. 51 Mary Howe: Ballade Fantasque Florence Price: Adoration Dorothy Rudd Moore: Dirge and Deliverance with Ruoting Li, pianist Navona Records CD: NV6659
	"GOING OFF SCRIPT: THE ORNAMENTED SUITES FOR CELLO" J.S. Bach: Six Suites for Solo Cello, BWV 1007-1012 (a revival of the long-lost tradition of improvisation in Bach’s suites) King Street ecords CD: KS001
	"ENTREZ, LE DIABLE! THE VIRTUOSO CELLO AT THE CONCERT SPIRITUEL" (featuring experimental 18th Century sonatas that chart the emergence of the cello as a solo instrument in France) Jean Baptiste Barrière: Sonata in D, Book 1, #6            Sonata in b, Book 3, #5 Martin Berteau: Sonata in G, Op. 1, #3 François Martin: Sonata in D, Op. 2, #4 Salvatore Lanzetti: Sonata in e, Op. 1, #8 with Adaiha MacAdam-Somer, viola da gamba Lucas Harris, theorbo Justin Murphy-Mancini, harpsichord Acis CD: APL722276

With fierce displays of technique and impassioned rhetoric, the intrepid Soltis hurls herself into all of the music, producing gritty sounds and explosive passagework when she isn’t caressing lines with poetic grace.

GRAMOPHONE

Ms. Soltis’s playing is evocative, technically skilled, joyous when necessary, and often downright beautiful.

CLASSICAL CANDOR

American Woman

There are some wonderful unsung composers to be discovered here, thanks to Soltis and Li’s loving curation and heartfelt musicianship. A gem★★★★

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

These are virtuoso vehicles that play to Soltis’ strengths: her effortless agility, her control in all registers, and her ability to imbue even the wispiest sonorities with definition and purpose. This is an intelligently put together program that baroque cello fans will savor.

CLASSICS TODAY

Entrez, le Diable! The Virtuoso Cello at the Concert Spirituel

Any cellist who thinks Baroque sonatas are easy or unimaginative should definitely check out this CD.

STRINGS MAGAZINE

Entrez, le Diable! The Virtuoso Cello at the Concert Spirituel

Soltis is a clear virtuoso; the recording is beyond criticism. A stunning release.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Going Off Script: The Ornamented Suites for Cello

In between the many notes Bach penned lies a world of unspecified directions, gestures and possibilities the composer assumed his performers would understand and relish. It’s that lost world that Baroque cellist Juliana Soltis is on a mission to rediscover.

THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER

Going Off Script: The Ornamented Suites for Cello

“You’ve never heard Bach played this way before.

MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO

Going Off Script: The Ornamented Suites for Cello

“Soltis’s serious musicianship and inquiring mind shed fascinating and often stimulating light on these works.

GRAMOPHONE

[American Woman] is overwhelming, romantic, expressive, and as fierce and energetic as it is tender and delicate.

SONOGRAMA

After listening to American Woman, it’s impossible not to concur with Soltis’s position that the composers ‘deserve their place in the narrative of our shared musical history’ when the recording is so richly informed by their artistry.

TEXTURA

American Woman

Mesmerizing, intimate and intriguing; Soltis and Li’s inimitable talents are front and center for these delicate, romantic and energetic gems.

TAKE EFFECT MUSIC REVIEWS

American Woman: Helen Crane - An Elegy Rediscovered

Soltis’s interpretation stands out for its expressive energy and a sound projection that combines intensity and flexibility.

SONOGRAMA

11/13/2025 (8pm)	CANDLELIGHT CONCERTS AT BRUTON PARISH (Williamsburg, VA) Bruton Parish Episcopal Church Méreaux: Hymne de la nuit Kromolicki: Notturno Rheinberger: Elégie Vasks: Musique du Soir with Rebecca Davy, organist
3/12/2026 (8pm)	CANDLELIGHT CONCERTS AT BRUTON PARISH (Williamsburg, VA) Bruton Parish Episcopal Church J.S. Bach: Cello Suite #6 J.S. Bach: Cello Suite #1
3/14/2026 (5pm)	ST. JOHN’S UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST (Richmond, VA) J.S. Bach: Cello Suite #6 J.S. Bach: Cello Suite #1
3/19/2026 (6pm)	THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS Bruno Walter Auditorium, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (NYC) J.S. Bach: Cello Suite #6 J.S. Bach: Cello Suite #1
4/16/2026 (8pm)	CANDLELIGHT CONCERTS AT BRUTON PARISH (Williamsburg, VA) Bruton Parish Episcopal Church Saint-Saëns: Prière Halphen: Prière Merkel: Andacht Grützmacher: Weihegesang Pirani: Am Altar
10/28/2026 (8pm)	MARSHALL UNIVERSITY ORCHESTRA Dr. Ion Alexandru Malaimare, conductor Smith Recital Hall, Marshall University (Huntington, WV) Dvorák: Silent Woods
3//2027 (tbd)	THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS Bruno Walter Auditorium, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (NYC) “Remember the Ladies: Rediscovering the Society of American Women Composers”