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My Second Life as a Cellist

“In my spare time, I…”

Raquel Velho playing cello with Organ Colossal at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. — Photo by Beth Mickalonis, playing with *Organ Colossal* at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall.

Over the past years, I have balanced my academic life with artistic pursuits — namely, the cello.

In my artistic life, I have performed with orchestras, chamber ensembles, and local folk bands. Since 2019 in upstate New York, I have primarily worked with folk projects. The most intense collaboration was with Joan Kelsey (see below) while I have also joined (and continue to join at times) Zan & the Winter Folk in live performances. I briefly joined Organ Colossal in a very special performance of local composers and artists.

I currently play with the Union College Student and Community Orchestra — one of the biggest joys of my week is our Tuesday rehearsal in the Union Memorial Chapel in Schenectady, NY.

I share some of that artistic pursuit and the beauties that were born of it here, in the hope that other academics might find joy in this, too.

Joan Kelsey’s Silver Lining

The cello was never an instrument of my own choosing. My father, himself a cellist, picked it for me before I was born. My mother endured years of my father and I bickering, nearly daily, over practices. When I entered my undergraduate studies, I stopped playing the cello for nearly a decade, finally picking it up when I was invited by Joan Kelsey to join them and Connor Armbruster in forming a folk trio.

Together, we recorded an EP, ‘Best’, and an LP, ‘Friends and Family’, as Joan Kelsey’s Silver Lining. Both are available for online streaming on most common platforms. Though we have sadly disbanded as Joan has moved across the country to live in Seattle, we are proud of what we have accomplished together, including write-ups in local media and a loyal group of fans in upstate New York.

We played over 40 shows together, including at the Tang Teaching Museum, Caffé Lena, and Little Peck’s Singer-Songwriter Series.

Other Musical Commitments

In 2020, I partnered with Jammella Anderson to organize the Upstate Mixtape, a benefit compilation with all proceeds going to participating Black musicians. We spoke about the project on Hudson Mohawk Magazine.

In 2022 I was the cellist for the ensemble in the world premiere of Penelope — A New Rock Musical, an Alex Bechdel piece inspired by the Odyssey, at Caffé Lena.