As a cellist, George Rochelle started his cello journey at the age of 8 years old in the renowned Manhattan Beach Unified School District’s music program strings class in the 3rd grade. At age 15, George auditioned for and won a seat in the school district's Grammy Award Winning Mira Costa High School Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Peter Park. The experience of playing major symphonic literature such as Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 (New World Symphony), and Peter Illych Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 as a cellist in this high-level high school orchestra that set George on desiring a career and higher education in the performing arts as a cellist. While a cellist of the Grammy Award Winning Mira Costa High School Symphony Orchestra, the ensemble were invited to play in a concert series featuring exceptional high school level groups at New York’s Carnegie Hall. In that concert in May 2016, among the repertoire played was George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue
As a collegiate cellist, George continued his studies in cello performance at the acclaimed Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University Long Beach, under the highly effective and dedicated instruction of cello professor Joon Sung Jun, studying the concerto’s of Lalo, Elgar, Shostakovic, and Dvořák. He also performed in several chamber music concerts at the University, performing pieces such as Grieg’s string quartet in G minor and Schubert’s Trout Quintet. In addition to chamber music, George also played as a cellist in the Bob Cole Conservatory’s Symphony Orchestra, playing regular concert cycles under the direction of Johannes Müller-Stosch. In February of 2020, George along with other select student’s of Professor Joon Sung Jun’s Bob Cole Conservatory cello studio, recorded and performed the West Coast premiere of Heitor Villa Lobos’s virtuosic and demanding Fantasia Concertante for cello orchestra. The recording and concert that took place at the Bob Cole Conservatory’s Daniel Recital Hall was also an international collaboration with cello students of Professor Lars Hoeffs from Sao Paulo State University, Campinas, in Brazil. George has a B.M. in Music Performance with a concentration in strings, cello (2021) and a Masters in Music (2023) from the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music. George has also studied cello with Anita Gendler.
As a teacher, George has helped numerous students of all ages expand their technique and achieve their musical dreams around the coastal communities of the South Bay. George values and enjoys teaching as he wants to help students expand their level of playing beyond what they thought possible, just as George’s teachers have done for him. He has mentored elementary students in group classes, coaches small chamber groups and teaches private students. Some of George’s private students have gotten into advanced youth orchestras in the area and have been appointed top seats. George currently regularly teaches several students in the coastal towns of the South Bay and often fills in as a guest instructor for small chamber groups.
Apart from cello, George also is active in other parts of music, working on the music production side as a recording engineer. As self-taught recording engineer, George has built a reputation providing quality video and audio documentation among primarily high school and collegiate level cellists of their playing for school auditions, concerto competitions, recital recordings, and similar projects. He also has recorded ensembles too, such larger choral ensembles with strings, piano, and organ accompaniment. In addition to having played on the west coast premiere of Heitor Villa Lobos’s Fantasia Concertante, George was the recording engineer and main producer for this recording which is to be released soon.
George does other activities too. Running is a routine method of exercise, going on morning runs amassing distances of 6 to 8 miles in a day. Sometimes on weekends distances can total 12 or more miles in one day. He has now run the Long Beach Marathon twice. Hobbies include researching and collecting exceptional recordings of compositions in the orchestral literature. His preferred musical medium is still in the physical format of CDs, and he looks to keep adding CD’s to his ever expanding music library. Also being an audio component enthusiast, he has successfully serviced and repaired malfunctioning audio equipment and has computer designed and hand built custom high fidelity loudspeaker systems.
