Ben Sollee

Over the last two decades, Kentuckian Ben Sollee has distinguished himself as multi-faceted creative, blurring the lines between music, tech, and experiential design. As a cellist, songwriter, and storyteller he has toured the globe, sometimes by bicycle, performing his original music. As
a composer, he has created music for stage, screen, and virtual reality apps earning an Emmy Award for his 2018 score for Base Ballet. As a producer, he has curated hundreds of live events including experiences for the Speed Art Museum and Lincoln Center. Throughout it all, he has
advocated for people and the land by creating and curating experiences that grow a greater sense of togetherness.

“The throughline for all my various projects is togetherness”, says Sollee of his music and creative work. “Whether I’m producing a live experience or developing a virtual reality app, my purpose is the same: to include rather than exclude and help humans grow their affection for
each other and the environment.” Sollee’s body of work bears this out.

Sollee is known for his outside-of-the-box cello playing and his curiosity has led him to new, innovative media spaces. In 2016, Sollee teamed up with designer Pat King of Woodpenny games to create The Vanishing Point, the first-ever interactive, virtual reality music app for mobile devices. The project was crowd-funded on Indie Go Go with the support of over 160 backers. Continuing his work in interactive media, Sollee collaborated with contemporary dance icons Keoni & Mari in 2018 to create the music for RUTH, the first-ever, interactive “dancebook.” Mr. Sollee is also known for his social and environmental advocacy. Growing up in Kentucky, he developed a deep affection for the land and its people. This affection has manifested in many collaborations and projects with Appalachian Voices, The Nature Conservancy, and Oxfam America to name a few. In 2009, Sollee began touring partly by bicycle. Over the following five years, he racked up over 5,000 miles of pedaling around the nation with his cello Kay on what he affectionately called his “Ditch the Van” tour. Currently, Sollee also works as Media and Production lead for Canopy Ky, a non-profit helping businesses incorporate, measure, and grow their social and environmental good.

Mr. Sollee lives in Louisville, KY with his wife and three children

Brent Arnold

Cellist and composer Brent Arnold creates music that moves fluidly between composition and improvisation, and between acoustic and electronic sound worlds. The New York Times has praised his “mastery across string instruments.” Working in contemporary classical, rock, opera, and interdisciplinary performance, his music is marked by a balance of experimentalism and emotional directness. His musical approach was shaped through studies with cellist Walter Gray of the Kronos Quartet and legendary spiritual jazz violinist Michael White, known for his work with Pharoah Sanders, John Handy, Alice Coltrane, and Sun Ra. Arnold’s latest album More Light, produced by Randall Dunn, will be released in 2026. It interweaves chamber music compositions with dark electronic textures, featuring Gelsey Bell, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Eyvind Kang, Josh Modney, Jessica Pavone, Alaina Ferris, and Mark Dover. In 2024, Arnold collaborated with Grey Filastine, Walid Ben Selim, Ricard Soler, and Ali Abdi Omar to create the opera Ali, which premiered at La Monnaie in Brussels, Belgium. His latest project is the Night Heron Quintet, an ensemble bringing together distinctive voices from contemporary classical, jazz, and non-Western traditions in richly structured compositions with improvisational freedom. The quintet is Arun Ramamurthy (violin), Zosha Warpeha (Hardanger d’amore), Brent Arnold (cello), John Murchison (bass), and Alaina Ferris (harp). He is also a founding member of Ghost Quartet with Dave Malloy, Gelsey Bell, and Brittain Ashford, and has worked with artists including Zola Jesus, Jessika Kenney, Ashwini Ramaswamy, Drew McDowall, Steve Von Till, SQÜRL (Jim Jarmusch & Carter Logan), Wayne Horvitz, Reggie Watts, Lia Ouyang Rusli, DJ /rupture, The Antlers, and many more.

Naseem Alatrash

Naseem Alatrash is a Palestinian cellist and composer- his performances include a mix of improvisation and traditional melodies, with a focus on traditional Arabic music with jazz and contemporary classical music influences.

Naseem has appeared at numerous international festivals including the Newport Jazz Festival, the Dominican Republic Jazz Festival, Abu Dhabi Music Festival, Lebanon’s Zouk Mikael International Festival, Lebanon’s Beit Aldeen Festival, Aix-en-Provence Festival, and Jerash Festival. He has performed at such notable venues as the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, the Lincoln Theater, Wigmore Hall, Koerner Hall, University of Michigan Ann Arbor Music Series, NYU Abu Dhabi Arts Center, the Royal Opera of Oman, The Royal Albert Hall, and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. He has performed alongside world-renowned musicians including Ron Carter, Roger Waters, Terri Lyne Carrington, Eugene Friesen, Kenny Aronoff, Rami Jaffee, Luis Conte, Javier Limon, Jorge Drexler, Alejandro Sanz, Scott Page of Pink Floyd, Carmine Rojas of David Bowie, Mike Garson of David Bowie, and many others.

Alatrash has been awarded String Player of the Year twice from The National Music Competition of Palestine. In addition to his solo career, Alatrash performs with the Turtle Island String Quartet, the Global Messengers ensemble with pianist Danilo Pérez and with Amir ElSaffar’s Rivers of Sound ensemble in addition to teaching at the Berklee College of Music, Tufts University and the Longy School of Music.

Shannon Hayden

Innovative performer Shannon Hayden has carved a distinctive niche in the music world, touring globally for over a decade with her unique setup: a 19th-century cello coupled with pickups and electronic modifications. Trained by legends like Starker and Parisot, Hayden’s musicality has been equally shaped by a lifelong passion for experimental, electronically manipulated soundscapes. A “one-woman orchestra” (New York Music Daily) who defies musical convention, Hayden has spent the last decade quietly revolutionizing what’s possible with her instrument while reshaping the intersection of tradition and technology.

Night by Dark Water I – Shannon Hayden

Helen Gillet

Helen Gillet is a singer-songwriter and surrealist-archeologist exploring synthesized sounds, texture, and rhythm using an acoustic cello. For some- one with her varied background, New Orleans, with its mix of cultures and musics, seemed like a natural place to call home. She was born in Belgium, raised in Singapore for 9 years as a child, and routinely shuttled between the homelands of her Belgian father and American mother. Over the years — working in New Orleans with musicians of all stripes, from avant-garde jazz and classical to pop and funk — Gillet has developed a singular polyglot style. The core of her work is solo performance with live looping, layering cello parts and vocal lines. Rhythmic figures emerge with bowed or plucked ostinatos or a variety of rubbing and slapping on the body of the cello, then enhanced with melodies played or sung in her haunting alto. Gillet’s solo performance is known for its enigmatic quality as she fabricates each song with innovative use of the cello and true mastery of live looping technology. She has performing in festivals across Europe, Australia, and The United States as a solo musician, collaborator and educator. Gillet has recorded for countless musicians throughout her career and has self published 14 albums of her own original music ranging from progressive jazz, electro folk rock bands and solo singer-songwriting albums. Her latest album is called “ReBelle” a Tribute to Belgian folk singer Julos Beaucarne and features a quintet of New Orleans musicians.

Helen Gillet is the recipient of the Doris Duke Performance Award, New Orleans Best Contemporary Jazz and best Female Performer from Gambit Best of The Beat awards and Offbeat Magazine’s Best “Other Instrumentalist” and “Mixed Bag” music and twice for Rising Star in Downbeat Magazine’s Critic Poll.

You can find Helen online at her website, helengillet.com or on bandcamp at helengillet.bandcamp.com and on Youtube and Instagram at Helen Gillet.

She currently splits her time between New Orleans, LA and her summer off grid home upstate New York near Vermont.

The Intergalactic Cello Quartet

The Intergalactic Cello Quartet is a transcontinental band composed of cellists and improvisers Stijn Kuppens (Belgium), Gunther Tiedemann, and Dave Haughey and Jeremy Harman (USA).  The group was formed during the 2024 New Directions Cello Festival to serve as a vehicle for the creative output of its members, and their music fuses elements of contemporary chamber music, jazz, rock, and folk, with the group performing exclusively original music.  The 2026 New Directions Cello Festival will be their first public performance!

Gunther Tiedemann is a multi-genre cellist and improviser based in Cologne, Germany.  He has performed jazz, rock, pop, contemporary chamber music as well as traditional classical music throughout Europe, the USA, Brasil, West Africa and Pakistan. Tiedemann is the cellist of the ensembles String Thing, The Intergalactic Cello Quartet and Arcopia.

Tiedemann has a long list of diverse collaborators including Markus Stockhausen, Ernst Reijseger (NL), Roger Hanschel, Stephan Braun, Jeremy Harman (USA), David Haughey (USA), Stephen Katz (USA), Stijn Kuppens (BE), Chris Haigh (GB), Rupert Gillett (GB), Neal Morse (USA), José Feliciano (Puerto Rico), Nelly Furtado (CAN), Voces8 (GB), Rio Cello Ensemble (BRA) with Yaniel Matos (Cuba/Brasil), David Plate, Thomas Rückert, Ulrike Tiedemann and Michael Villmow. 

Dave Haughey is an improviser, composer, and teacher who is always searching for new ways to expand the unique capabilities of the cello, thus trailblazing a path to a world where the instrument is known not only for its place in classical music but also as a versatile and ubiquitous tool for music making in any genre. 

He has performed with the Paul Winter Consort, Eugene Friesen, Zohar Fresco, Armen Ksajikian, Roman Stolyar, Andrew Bishop, Glen Velez, Loire Cotler and others across the globe from the USA, to Asia, South America, Europe, and the Middle East. Dave has taught private lessons and workshops at festivals and schools around the world, including at The Berklee College of Music, The Conservatory of Tatui and the Rio International Cello Encounter in Brazil. He works as a performer, recording artist, teacher, and composer.

Cellist, composer, and songwriter Jeremy Harman is always exploring shifting musical terrain; equally at home on acoustic and electric instruments, his distinct sound and approach stems from a broad-based love of music and a desire to explore it through the lens of the cello. With influences including contemporary classical, modern jazz, progressive metal, downtempo, free improvisation, and folk music of all kinds, his musical path has taken him across the globe and to venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to the Kodak Center to the House of Blues to the Newport Jazz Festival.

Harman is the cellist for the Sirius Quartet, which has brought its original compositions and unique sound to audiences throughout the U.S., Germany, Switzerland, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, and South Africa. In 2020, Harman was named artistic director of the New Directions Cello Festival, which has showcased alternative cellists from all over the world for almost 30 years.

Harman has shared the stage with a wide range of artists including Quincy Jones, John Williams, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Bobby McFerrin, Lady Gaga, Sir Elton John, Tony Bennett, and Mary J. Blige, among others, and has done session and arranging work for countless indie artists in New England and beyond. A passionate educator, Harman is an associate professor of cello at Berklee College of Music.

*All workshops and rehearsals will take place on the Smith College Campus (both Earle Recital Hall and Classroom 15 are located in Sage Hall), while concerts will take place at the BOMBYX Center for Arts and Equity

THURSDAY 6/25

1:30-3:3:30PM

Participant arrival and check-in at Smith College

3:30-5:00PM

Welcome Session/Cello Big Band Rehearsal

6:30-8:00PM

Open Mic Night – Open to all participants and guest artists!

FRIDAY 6/26

9:00-10:30AM

Workshop A: Brent Arnold- Gear, Gear and more…Gear!

In this workshop, Brent will do a deep dive into cello pickup & mic options, pros and cons of using amplifiers versus going direct, DI boxes, the use of effects pedals, convolution reverb & body IRs. The workshop will also focus on live looping options, including Ableton Live, and how to get beyond the common traps and cliches that cellists often find when creating loop-based music.

-OR-

Workshop B: Naseem Alatrash- Melodic and Rhythmic Foundations of Arabic Music

This workshop will be an introduction to the modal system of Arabic music, known as Maqam, and to Iqaa’at, the rhythmic cycles. Participants will explore these concepts while learning selections from standard Arabic repertoire that use these modes.

10:45AM-12:15PM

Workshop A: Shannon Hayden-  Expanded Cello Techniques: Technology and its Place in Our Creative Practice

This workshop explores how technology can serve as a natural extension of the cello, expanding possibilities for composition, improvisation, and performance. Participants will focus on using live electronics, recording and production tools as part of a creative practice, helping cellists develop a more expansive and personal sonic voice.

-OR-

Workshop B: Ben Sollee- Chop Chop!  Rhythm, Groove and Comping on Cello (more info coming soon)

2:00-3:30PM

Workshop A: Intergalactic Cello Quartet- Composition and Improvisation in Contemporary Chamber Music (more info coming soon)

-OR-

Workshop B: Helen Gillet- Deep Listening and Integrating Influences:

In this workshop, Helen will share her own creative journey as a cellist and an artist and ways in which she has integrated seemingly disparate influences from Indian classical music to the Avant Garde.  Participants will be encouraged to engage in deep listening and improvisation exercises to encourage openness in the development of their own unique voices.

3:45-5:15PM

Cello Big Band Rehearsal

7:00PM

NDCF CONCERT #1

Bombyx Center for Arts and Equity

Doors @ 6pm

7:00- Helen Gillet

8:00- Shannon Hayden 

9:00- Naseem Alatrash with Ize Trio 

SATURDAY 6/27

9:00-10:30AM 

Workshop A: Helen Gillet- Seamless Loops

Helen Gillet utilizes live-looping heavily in her performances.  In this workshop, she will help participants learn to create loops that are both seamless and interesting, as well as diving into strategies for creating loop-based music that is compelling and versatile, and the role that improvisation can play in this process. 

OR 

Workshop B: Naseem Alatrash- Taqsim and Improvisation in Arabic Music

This workshop focuses on Taqsim, the art of modal improvisation in Arabic music. Participants will learn the structure of a Taqsim and how its principles can be applied to jazz improvisation and other genres.

10:45AM-12:15PM

Workshop A: Intergalactic Cello Quartet- Open Rehearsal

-OR-

Workshop B: Shannon Hayden Why Are We Doing This? A Talk and Roundtable Discussion on Building a Sustainable Career as a Musician Today. 

This workshop and discussion explores the deeper questions behind what it means to build a lasting and meaningful career as a cellist today. We will discuss artistic identity, business plans (yes, you need one!) and the realities of building a flexible and diverse career as a cellist, including performance, writing for film, composition, technology, teaching, and entrepreneurship. Participants are invited into an open discussion to share their thoughts and experiences about shaping a meaningful and sustainable life in music. 

2:00-3:30PM

Workshop A: Brent Arnold- Generative Sonic Worldbuilding in Ableton Live

Building off of his first workshop about gear and live-looping, Brent will go further down the rabbit hole and discuss ways in which you can create elaborate, ever-changing custom effect chains in Ableton Live. He will also discuss sonic processing structures as a creative tool and ways in which it can create new frameworks for both composition and improvisation.

-OR-

Workshop B: Ben Sollee- The Cellist as Singer-Songwriter (more info coming soon)

3:45-5:15PM

Cello Big Band Rehearsal

7:00PM

NDCF CONCERT #2
Bombyx Center for Arts and Equity

Doors @ 6pm

7:00- Intergalactic Cello Quartet

8:00- Brent Arnold 

9:00- Ben Sollee 

SUNDAY 6/28

8:00-8:45AM 

Yoga with Marcy Little & NDCF Founder Chris White

Unwind and energize with us! Bring your own mat.

9:00-10:30AM

Workshop TBD (more info coming soon!)

12:30-2:30PM

Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity

Cello Big Band Rehearsal

3:00PM

NDCF CONCERT #3

Bombyx Center for Arts and Equity

Doors @ 2:30pm

NDCF 2026 Festival Participant Showcase & Cello Big Band Performance

5:00-7:00PM

Ana Bandeira Chocolates

Afterparty and Jam