Cellist Madeleine Kabat enjoys a varied career as an orchestral, chamber, and solo performer. Currently a member of the Milwaukee Symphony’s cello section, she performed as principal for her first 7 months with the orchestra while serving as Acting Assistant Principal Cello. She has also performed as a substitute with the Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
Madeleine gave her solo debut with the Cleveland Orchestra at age 18 (Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations), and has since been featured as soloist with dozens of orchestras across the globe, in concertos ranging from Ligeti and Schnittke to Dvorak, Shostakovich, and Haydn.
From 2011-2017 Madeleine held the title of Visiting Artist at La Sierra University in California. She has performed chamber music at festivals in the US, Italy, Switzerland, Peru, Colombia, Korea, China, Italy, and Mexico. Madeleine was the founding cellist of the Lysander Piano Trio (with whom she won a prize at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition), acted as substitute cellist for the Jasper String Quartet, and has performed chamber music with Lynn Harrell, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Simon Trpceski, Joyce Yang, Orion Weiss, and members of the Cleveland, Fine Arts, Escher, Dover, and Attacca string quartets. She will appear as a guest with the Fine Arts Quartet again this spring- a collaboration which she has enjoyed annually for the past few years.
During the summer, she can be found performing and teaching at the Renova Chamber Music Festival (PA) and Lakes Area Music Festival (MN). Madeleine holds degrees from the Juilliard School, Rice University, Cleveland Institute of Music, and Oberlin Conservatory (where she served as teaching assistant to Darrett Adkins), and holds prizes from the Klein International String Competition and the Hellam Competition. She resides in Milwaukee with her Havanese dog Oreo, and performs on an Italian cello made by Giovanni Pistucci in 1891.