Dana Rath

Dana Rath is a senior at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater, and Dance, where she is pursuing a Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance and a minor in Art History. She has been playing the cello since she was four years old. She currently studies with Professor Richard Aaron and previously studied with Daniel Veis, Martin Storey, and Julian Boren. Rath was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America on their 2016 European tour, conducted by Valery Gergiev and Christoph Eschenbach and accompanied the pianists Emanuel Ax and Denis Matsuev, and she is principal cellist of Michigan’s University Symphony Orchestra. She has received fellowships to attend the Detroit Symphony Orchestra Summer Institute, 2020; Center Stage Strings, 2019; Aspen Music Festival, 2018; Bowdoin Summer Music Festival 2021 and 2022; and was awarded the Artistic Leadership Award Scholarship to attend the University of Michigan. In 2015, Rath won First Prize and Audience Favorite in the Kansas City Symphony’s Young Artist Competition, and in 2021 she was awarded the Eugene Bossart Prize as a winner of the University of Michigan’s Undergraduate Concerto Competition. When Rath isn’t playing the cello, she enjoys cooking and drawing in her free time.