Christopher Bedoya, Cello

Christopher Bedoya, a Greenwich native, was one of the 12 original students to enter the Greenwich Suzuki Academy in its inaugural year (2004), beginning his cello studies with Heather Hardie (then still Heather Watson) when he was about 9 years old and continuing his studies with Dr. Nicholas Hardie while attending Greenwich High School. Christopher went on to attended Baylor University where he graduated with a Bachelor’s in Cello Performance under Dr. Gary Hardie in 2016. He joined the faculty of the Central Texas String Academy in 2012 under Suzuki teacher trainer and violist Dr. Julia Hardie, and became the director of the cello department in 2016.  In 2017, he additionally joined the faculty of the Academie Musique of Temple. Christopher moved back to the northeast in 2019 to pursue a Master’s degree at SUNY Purchase College under Julia Lichten as well as receive further training in the Suzuki method from New York’s premiere Suzuki program, The School for Strings, under Pam Devenport. During the summers Christopher teaches at the Westchester Suzuki Institute and the Temple Summer Strings Camp.

Christopher has also studied with Felix Wang and Benjamin Karp through the Brevard Music Festival as well as taken Master Classes with John Sharp, Joylon Pegis, and the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. Christopher has received Suzuki training through the Ithaca Suzuki Institute with Sally Gross and the Chicago Suzuki Institute with Barbara Wampner.

While living in Texas, Christopher performed with the Waco Symphony Orchestra and the Temple Symphony Orchestra as well as the Waco Strings Quartet and the Grazioso String Quartet. Christopher is also proud to have been part of a quintet selected as the winner of Baylor University’s Semper Pro Musica competition in 2016. In addition to being selected as an all-state cellist in high school here in Connecticut, Christopher was also selected to participate in the Masterclass with Julie Albers at the Suzuki Association of the America’s Biennial Conference in 2012.

Christopher also occasionally practices the martial art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and is usually thinking about ways to expand and improve his 5-minute comedy routine. A recently adopted Mantra of his is “Less but Better,” a sentiment which his cat, Sophie, finds purr-fect.