Mike Block

Mike Block is a pioneering multi-style cellist, singer, composer, and educator, hailed by Yo-Yo Ma as the “ideal musician of the 21st century,” and acclaimed by the New York Times for his “vital rich-hued solo playing.” While studying at the Juilliard School, Mike joined the Silk Road Ensemble, with which he has toured extensively, and won the GRAMMY Award for Best World Music Album. Mike is also an active recording artist of original material, folk music, and cross-cultural collaborations, and he has an ongoing project to record all of the Bach cello suites in acoustically glorious bathrooms of famous concert halls, via www.BachInTheBathroom.com.

As an educator, Mike is passionate about emphasizing creativity and collaboration, which led him to the founding of the Mike Block String Camp in 2010. MBSC provides players of all backgrounds the opportunity to learn from a world-class faculty in a variety of styles, while exploring and developing their own artistic voices in small bands.  In 2015, Mike created the online Multi-Style Cello School at ArtistWorks.com, with an extensive library of instructional videos, and he is the founding Director of Silkroad’s Global Musician Workshop, bringing together musicians of diverse backgrounds from around the globe.  In 2012, he was appointed associate professor at Berklee College of Music,

Mike plays on a cello made in 2014 by Fabienne Gauchet, with D’Addario strings, a David Gage Realist pickup, and stands while performing using the patented cello strap of his own design, the Block Strap. www.MikeBlockMusic.com