Biography
American cellist Jeffrey Zeigler has long concentrated on contemporary repertoire, spending eight years as a member of the Kronos Quartet while also establishing himself as an influential teacher. He first encountered the instrument at age eight after his non-musical family agreed to lessons, though he initially had no idea what a cello was; a cassette of Yo-Yo Ma performing Haydn’s cello concertos soon sparked a lasting interest. Zeigler completed his undergraduate studies at the Eastman School of Music in 1995 before earning a master’s degree from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, pursued additional training at the University of Indiana, and later served as a resident artist in the Lisa Arnhold String Quartet-in-Residence Program at the Juilliard School as a member of the Corigliano Quartet. His first appearance on disc came in 1999 with Society of Composers, Inc.: Connections, after which nearly all of his extensive recording activity centered on new music.
Zeigler entered the Kronos Quartet in 2005 as the replacement for Jennifer Culp and remained until 2013, when he stepped away to pursue independent projects and was replaced by Sunny Yang; during his tenure the group issued many recordings and collected several major awards. He has appeared as soloist with leading ensembles such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Toronto Symphony, and the Royal Danish Radio Symphony, and he has commissioned or collaborated with composers and artists including Philip Glass, Yo-Yo Ma, avant-garde rock artist Laurie Anderson, John Corigliano, and Pulitzer Prize-winning scientist Siddhartha Mukherjee. Following his departure from Kronos, Zeigler issued the solo album Something of Life on Innova, recorded for the VisionintoArt label and for Glass’s Orange Mountain Music imprint on Music for The Crucible, and released Slow Beethoven on the Round Sound label in 2023. He currently serves on the faculty of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami in Florida, where he oversees the Frost Chamber Music Series.
Zeigler entered the Kronos Quartet in 2005 as the replacement for Jennifer Culp and remained until 2013, when he stepped away to pursue independent projects and was replaced by Sunny Yang; during his tenure the group issued many recordings and collected several major awards. He has appeared as soloist with leading ensembles such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Toronto Symphony, and the Royal Danish Radio Symphony, and he has commissioned or collaborated with composers and artists including Philip Glass, Yo-Yo Ma, avant-garde rock artist Laurie Anderson, John Corigliano, and Pulitzer Prize-winning scientist Siddhartha Mukherjee. Following his departure from Kronos, Zeigler issued the solo album Something of Life on Innova, recorded for the VisionintoArt label and for Glass’s Orange Mountain Music imprint on Music for The Crucible, and released Slow Beethoven on the Round Sound label in 2023. He currently serves on the faculty of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami in Florida, where he oversees the Frost Chamber Music Series.
Albums
