Cellist Kristin Ostling comes to the Carpe Diem String Quartet as a veteran of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, a 1995 appointee of then conductor David Zinman.

Kristin is a graduate of both the Curtis Institute of Music and the Mannes College of Music, where she received the Mannes College Performance Award. Her teachers have included Orlando Cole, Paul Tobias, Susannah Onwood, and Robert Story.

This superlative and versatile artist is enjoying a varied career as chamber musician, soloist, symphony cellist, and rock musician. She has been featured as a soloist with the Baltimore Symphony, as well as in chamber music roles with some of the world's most prominent musicians, a roster that includes Pinchas Zukerman, Ralph Kirschbaum, and BSO concertmaster Jonathan Carney. In addition, she serves as principal cellist with the Emmy-winning Baltimore Choral Arts Society, a post she has held since 2002. In addition, she has found time to make guest appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, and the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra.

Ms. Ostling began her cello studies in Louisville, KY where, as a winner of the Young Artists Competition, she appeared as a soloist with the Louisville Orchestra. Since then she has appeared as soloist and chamber musician at countless venues and festivals throughout the world, including Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the German and Icelandic Embassies in Washington, D.C., the U.S. State Department, ”Bargemusic,” the La Jolla Chamber Music Society’s “ SummerFest,” the Pensacola Chamber Music Festival, the Academia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy, the Baltimore Symphony’s “Chamber Music by Candlelight,” Concert Artists of Baltimore, the UMBC Chamber Music Series,” Sundays at Three” of Columbia ,MD, the Pennsylvania Academy of Music, and The Snake River Chamber Players. She recently gave the world premiere of composer Larry Hoffman’s Blues Suite for Solo Violoncello.

In addition to playing the traditional classical repertoire, Kristin is also one of a handful of cellists exploring the genre of rock cello. She can be heard on the Rock Album Southern Barber Supply by the Cashmere Jungle Lords, and recently joined the rock cello band Primitivity, whose first album was greeted with rave reviews. Footage from Primitivity’s concerts has been featured on many top websites. An honorary member of The Sofa Kings of Pittsburgh, Kristin can also be heard on a rare Wednesday night off playing “open mike” night at Hula’s Bar in California, MD.

Kristin plays a cello by Giacomo Rivolta (Milan,1828),as well as a bow by J. Arthur Vigneron, c 1908.