Bio

Due to restrictions imposed by COVID-19, I am teaching cello, viola da gamba, and baroque cello entirely online via FaceTime/Google Duo and similar tools. Please contact me to join my online studio.

John Ott has been performing and teaching cello lessons in Irvine, CA for almost two decades. He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Performance in 2004 from UC Irvine, where he studied with Dr. Margaret Parkins, and returned in 2016 from a two-year excursion to Boston to complete a Master’s degree in Early Music at the Longy School of Music, where he studied with Jane Hershey and performed extensively on both baroque cello and viola da gamba. As a performer, he has played in Symphony Irvine, Dana Point Symphony, Montage Civic Orchestra, South Orange County Chamber Orchestra, Elegie Quartet, and he currently performs regularly with L’Esprit Baroque and Guts Baroque, ensembles that perform Baroque music on period instruments from Southern California to Maine. He has taught at Wildwood Music Camp, Arrowbear Music Camp and Chamber Arts Fest, and is employed by University, Northwood and Woodbridge High Schools as a cello coach. In addition he has been teaching private cello lessons in Orange County since 2000, and has been cello and music theory faculty and Assistant Director of Vienna Music Institute since it opened in January, 2006.

Here for viola da gamba or baroque cello?

Here’s an article I wrote about evaluating a continuo part to determine which instrument is most appropriate.