Lydia Rhea, cello (Fishers, IN), is currently pursuing her B.M. at the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying under Melissa Kraut. She was formerly a scholarship-recipient fellow at the Music Institute of Chicago Academy, where she studied with Hans Jørgen Jensen. Lydia has performed as a soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, the Muncie Symphony Orchestra, and the Carmel Symphony Orchestra, among others. She has been featured on NPR’s From the Top, both as a soloist and as the cellist in the Kairos String Quartet. Lydia garnered international recognition as the cellist of the Kairos String Quartet in the 2017-18 season through the quartet’s gold-medal wins at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition. In the summer of 2018, Lydia attended the Festival de Ecoles d’Art Americaines de Fountainebleau in France, where her string quartet was awarded the Premier Prix and the Prix du Château de Fontainebleau in the Prix Ravel, sponsored by the Maurice Ravel Foundation. She has spent previous summers at the Heifetz International Music Institute and the Meadowmount School of Music. Lydia has participated in masterclasses with Gary Hoffman, Philippe Muller, Robert Levin, Blaise Déjardin, Sharon Robinson, Amir Eldan, and Richard Aaron.