Francesca McNeeley, cello (Boston, MA), is an avid chamber musician, as well as a fierce advocate for contemporary music. As a New Fromm Player at the Tanglewood Music Center she premiered string quartets by John Harbison, Mark Neikrug, and Kui Dong, and gave the American premiere of Joseph Phibbs’s first quartet. Additionally, she has premiered works by Augusta Reed Thomas, Abigail Richardson-Schulte, and Donnacha Dennehy, among others. She has earned fellowships and prizes from the Tanglewood Music Center, the Music Academy of the West, and the Toronto Summer Music Festival, and is also on the management roster of Seven-Eight Artists. This season she is featured in the University of Pennsylvania’s Rochberg@100 performances, as well as Boston’s New Gallery Concert Series. Upcoming collaborations and performances bring her to New York, New Hampshire, Seattle, and the UK. The recipient of numerous chamber music distinctions in school, she has worked with Kim Kashkashian, Lucy Chapman, the Cleveland Quartet, and the Brentano Quartet. Francesca completed her B.A. at Princeton University, and her master’s degree at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. She recently completed a graduate diploma at the New England Conservatory in the studio of Yeesun Kim; other mentors have included Tom Kraines, Norman Fischer, and Astrid Schween.