Lillia Keyes, born in Poughkeepsie, NY, began playing cello at the age of six and soon after embarked on her cello studies with Nanette Koch. At age sixteen, she had her solo debut with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic as the winner of Virtuoso-in-Progress competition.
A graduate of The Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division, under the tutelage of Ardyth Alton and Fred Sherry, Lillia went on to study with Stephen Geber at the Cleveland Institute of Music. There she completed her Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance, graduating with Academic Honors. Shortly after she was accepted into the Orchestral Academy of the Staatskapelle Berlin (Berlin, Germany) under the direction of Daniel Barenboim. She then went on to finish a Master of Music in Orchestral Performance at the Universität der Künste Berlin.
Lillia Keyes has attended numerous music festivals in the United States and Europe such as The Aspen Music Festival, The Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, The Zermatt Festival, The Encore School for Strings and The Casals Festival. As a chamber musician she has taken part in many Masterclasses by renowned ensembles such as The Scharoun Ensemble, The Artemis String Quartet, The Tackas Quartet, The Tokyo String Quartet, The Miró String Quartet and The Cavani String Quartet. Solo Masterclasses by Wolfgang Boettcher, Elena Cheah, Gloria dePasquale, Gary Hoffman, Markus Nyikos and Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt have inspired the development of her character as a cellist, musician and performer.
Lillia lives and works in Berlin as a cellist, teacher and arranger. You can hear her collaborating with numerous orchestras in Berlin including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin, the Staatskapelle Berlin and education projects with the Berlin Philharmonic. An avid contemporary musician, she performs regularly with Ensemble United Berlin.
Lillia is a founding member of both she plays cello (sheplayscello.com) and Duo Nuage (duo-nuage.com).
Depending on the season, when she isn’t making music you can find her biking, rowing, running, walking her dog, knitting, reading or daydreaming about her next trip.