Biography

SEBASTIAN BEROFSKY is a twenty-two-year-old cellist from Ann Arbor, MI who began cello lessons at age six. He previously studied with University of Michigan professor Richard Aaron and he has also studied with, and played in master classes given by, Astrid Schween, Leonid Gorokhov, Steve Doane, Brandon Vamos, the Fauré Piano Quartet, the Horszowski Trio, Pavel Haas Quartet, the Callisto Quartet, and the Escher Quartet. One of three finalists in the Chautauqua Sigma Alpha Iota Concerto Competition, Sebastian was the winner of the Michigan American String Teachers Association chamber music prize, Michigan Youth Arts Festival chamber music award, Music Teachers National Association Senior String Division award (Michigan), and the Michigan Pops Orchestra concerto competition.

Last summer he attended the Tanglewood Music Center where he won the opportunity to play a concert in the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and also won the opportunity to participate in the Shostakovich Festival at the Gewandhaus Leipzig, playing under Andris Nelsons with the Boston Symphony and the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester. He has also attended Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Sarasota Music Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Center Stage Strings Advanced Chamber Music Program, and Indiana University Summer String Academy.

Sebastian recently won a position in the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra and is a substitute player with the Houston Grand Opera and the New World Symphony. He has also served as principal in the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. In 2018 he performed the Mendelssohn A Major Viola Quintet with faculty members and peers after winning the summer chamber music competition at the IU Summer String Academy. Sebastian has been a guest artist with the Pressenda Chamber Players in Washington, D.C. on several occasions. With the Berofsky Piano Quartet, he has played on the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra’s chamber series, as well as the Chautauqua Chamber Music series, University of Delaware Master Players, and the Crystal Valley Concert series.

Sebastian is a scholarship fourth-year undergraduate student at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, where he studies with Professor Desmond Hoebig and coaches chamber music with Professors Norman Fischer and Brian Connelly. He was a member of Trio Riso, an ensemble that was selected as a semifinalist for the Coltman Chamber Music Competition and a quarterfinalist for the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in 2024.