Cellist Kristina Reiko Cooper Appears As Soloist With Beer Sheva Sinfonietta, Beer Sheva, Israel, July 16, 2026

Ms. Cooper Will Give The Israeli Premiere Of Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Fantasy for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 52.

 

The supremely gifted and versatile cellist Kristina Reiko Cooper will join the Beer sheva Sinfonietta under the baton of Music Director Constantine Orbelian at Performing Arts Center Beer sheva on July 16, 2026, at 7:30 pm local time.

 

This concert will showcase works by two 20th-century Jewish composers of profound artistry. Ms. Cooper will give the Israeli premiere of composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Fantasy for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 52, and the program will be completed by Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Cello Concerto in C Major, Op. 37

 

For more information, please visit Beersheba’s event page and cellist Kristina Reiko Cooper’s website.

 

In March 2026, Hidden Legacies - Weinberg & Korngold, was released on the Delos label and available to stream on all major platforms. Ms. Cooper performs as soloist with chief conductor Constantine Orbelian and the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra. The album program includes Weinberg’s Cello Concerto in C minor, Op. 43, Fantasy for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 52, and Korngold’s Cello Concerto in C Major, Op. 37. Reviewing this recording for the May 2026 issue of BBC Music Magazine, critic Jo Talbot writes:

 

"This scenic backdrop [of Korngold's Cello Concerto] is partnered by soaringly memorable melodies, American cellist Kristina Reiko Cooper drawing a winning lyrical line and surmounting the significant technical hurdles with convincing characterisation…Cooper is captivating and the incisive conducting of Orbelian with the Kaunas City Symphony underline lovely lilt to the music’s dance-like character… Nevertheless, the inclusion of the less frequently played [Weinberg's] Fantasia makes this a really evocative programme, particularly given the warmth and insight of Cooper's playing."  

  

In conjunction with the release of this album, a documentary film, Emerging from the Shadows: Rediscovering the legacies of Weinberg and Korngold, which follows Ms. Cooper and Maestro Orbelian as they record the repertoire for the album, received its first-ever screening in New York City at the Directors Guild of America’s New York Theater on April 15, 2026. As of today, this film has been shown in multiple festivals on three continents and has won multiple awards.

 

The internationally heralded cellist Kristina Reiko Cooper stands out among her peers not only for her polished virtuosity but for her fierce intelligence and imaginative programming. Her natural stage presence and effervescent personality inform all aspects of her musicianship—whether as recitalist, soloist with orchestra, recording artist, teacher, or as a member of a chamber performance. But it is her curiosity and enthusiasm that have led her to commission and play works by Lera Auerbach, Josef Bardanashvili, Kenji Bunch, Mario Davidovsky, Avner Dorman, Tan Dun, Philip Glass, Tania Leon, Roberto Siera, and Benjamin Yusupov. She serves as Co-Director with Joel Sachs of the pioneering New York-based contemporary music group Continuum. Over the years, critics from The New York Times have extolled her praises on numerous occasions: “Kristina Cooper gave a sensational performance…of the cello threnody;” “In the cello sonata, Kristina Reiko Cooper played the challenging cello line with a fluidity that made it seem easy;” “Ms. Cooper’s cello solos sang out in the slow movement with elegance and fine sentiment.”

 

Concluding her 2025/2026 season, Ms. Cooper appeared with BMOP, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, conducted by Gil Rose, in a world premiere performance of noted Israeli composer Avner Dorman’s Inner Fire, a new five-movement cello concerto dedicated to her. “It stands among [Avner Dorman’s] most compelling recent works,” said critic Aaron Keebaugh in his review for The Arts Fuse, “and Cooper, Rose, and BMOP delivered it with electrifying commitment.” (June 29, 2026)

 

Ms. Cooper’s 2024-2025 appearances as soloist with orchestra included engagements with the Jerusalem Symphony, the Israel Sinfonietta Beer-sheva, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Kinnor Philharmonic, Kansas City, a concert for Arte TV, and Mexico City Philharmonic. Ms. Cooper was invited to participate in the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra's commemoration of the Holocaust and gave the world premiere of Uri Brener's cello concerto entitled "Halls of Memory,, Veteran music critic Max Stern reviewed for the Jerusalem Post: “Clearly identifying with the work’s anguished message, cello soloist Kristina Reiko Cooper (USA-Israel) impressively projected its melodic asymmetry – as much with her formidable stage presence as with skillfully nuanced and chilling cries drawn from the cello. Both performer and composer of this recently written concerto received a well-deserved ovation at its close.” (April 28, 2025)

 

Several years ago, Ms. Cooper created a consortium of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, and the American Society of Yad Vashem to commission composer Lera Auerbach to write Symphony No. 6 “Vessels of Light.”  Scored for cello, chorus, and orchestra, the work commemorates the heroic deeds of Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara who, during World War II in Lithuania, issued between 2,100 and 3,500 life-saving transit visas to Jews. Owing to his courage by defying Japan’s regulations and risking his own life, generations of visa recipient families are alive today, including Ms. Cooper's husband and three children. “Vessels of Light,” was premiered in Lithuania in 2022, with Ms. Cooper performing as soloist with the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra and Kaunas State Choir under the leadership of music director Constantine Orbelian. It has also been performed with the New York City Opera Orchestra and Chorus led by Maestro Orbelian at Carnegie Hall; as well as with the Prague Radio Orchestra conducted by Maestro Alexander Liebreich; UCLA Philharmonia and Chamber Singers conducted by Neal Stulberg; Festival Napa Valley with the Festival Orchestra Napa under the leadership of Maestro Orbelian; Mexico City Philharmonic with Maestro Orbelian; Dresden Philharmonie led by François Leleux; the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, Germany, conducted by Alan Gilbert, and with the Konzerthaus Orchestra in Berlin, led by Joana Mallwitz.

 

Ms. Cooper has appeared as soloist with some of the world’s major orchestras in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Henry Crown Theater in Jerusalem, and the Kennedy Center, including with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonie, the Toronto Symphony, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Prague Chamber Orchestra, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the Osaka Symphony. The Tokyo Yomiuri Symhony, and Shanghai Symphony under the batons of conductors including Alan Gilbert, Alexander Liebriech, Constantine Orbelian, Tan Dun, Joana Mallwitz, and Francois Leleux.

 

A prolific chamber musician, Kristina won the Walter M. Naumburg Chamber Music Award first prize and has been a member of many renowned ensembles, including the Whitman Quartet, Quartetto Gelato, Opus X, and Intersection. Her many festival appearances include The Lincoln Center Summer Festival, Mostly Mozart, Musicians from Marlboro, Bang on a Can All-Stars, and the Stresa International Music Festival.

 

Born and raised in New York City, Ms. Cooper holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees as well as a doctoral degree from Juilliard, where she studied cello with Joel Krosnick. Her father, Rex Cooper, is an American pianist and former professor at the University of the Pacific and her mother, Mutsuko Tatman, is a violinist of Japanese descent who served for many years as concertmaster of the American Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Cooper’s grandfather, Tomojiro Ikenouchi, was a highly respected Japanese composer and her great-grandfather, Takahama Kyoshi, was considered the greatest haiku poet of the 20^th century.

 

Ms. Cooper serves as a visiting professor at the Buchmann Mehta School at Tel Aviv University, Israel. She is the founding musical director of The Israel Chamber Music Society, serves as the Vice-President of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. and sits on the board of the Charney Forum for New Diplomacy. Kristina plays on the 1743 Ex-Havermeyer G.B. Guadagnini cello and lives with her husband and three children in Tel Aviv, Israel.                                                            

 

 

 

 

For further information, please contact Hemsing Associates at (212) 772-1132 or visit www.hemsingpr.com.

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