About

Aaron Fried is a versatile musician based in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. Aaron has appeared on music series across his community and throughout the country, such Madison Jazz Festival, Stoughton Chamber Music Festival, Midsummer’s Music, Eastern Shore Chamber Music Festival, Cello Springs, and Chamber Music Silicon Valley. Aaron has appeared throughout the midwest with The Cleveland Opera, The Madison Symphony Orchestra, Madison Opera, Porthouse Theatre Orchestra, Rockford Symphony Orchestra, and The Traverse City Philharmonic. In 2023, Aaron served as principal cello on “Mahler’s Liederabend” at Colorado Mahlerfest.

Aaron currently serves as the cellist for the Marvin Rabin String Quartet, at The University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), where he is an ABD Doctor of Musical Arts candidate, under the direction of Professor Parry Karp.

Dedicated to pushing the limits of the cello, Aaron arranges for and performs with the genre-bending UW Bridge Project and was a member of Cleveland-based Five One Experimental Orchestra. Aaron has appeared on several jazz and rock albums, and recently his arrangements and compositions were heard in Madison at Cafe Coda’s Jazz Cello Happy Hour. As a dissertator, he is exploring the possible intersections of traditional cello pedagogy and jazz education and seeks to engage cello students with more genres and creative approaches. Aaron has also written extensively on emotional embodiment, vulnerability, and breathing in music performance. Last year, Aaron was honored with the Patricia A. Cheney Scholarship award. 

Also a dedicated educator with nearly two decades of teaching experience, Mr. Fried serves as the cello section coach for the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras and UW-Madison’s All-University String Orchestra. Aaron teaches the String Fundamentals cello course for Music Education students at UW-Madison and directs the cello program at Eagle School in Fitchburg, WI. Previously, Aaron served for three years as adjunct cello faculty at Kent State University, and he has also taught with the Boston Philharmonic Crescendo Outreach Program, Chapel Hill Chamber Music Workshop, Creative Music Camp, Durham Youth Orchestra, Hickory Hill Strings Camp, Old Trail School, Revolution of Hope, MYCO Summer Workshop, Western Reserve Academy, and WYSO Music Makers Summer Workshop. Aaron has guest taught at Case Western Reserve University, UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke University, The College of New Jersey, Mercer College, and Université de Rennes. In 2014, Aaron received a George Bornoff Memorial Scholarship, a distinction granted to promising young music educators by the Foundation of the Advancement of String Education and the American String Teachers Association. Aaron’s students have earned scholarships at various conservatories and university music programs.

Aaron studied at The Boston Conservatory with Rhonda Rider and at Kent State University with Keith Robinson. Other cello instructors for whom he is forever grateful include Dr. Jonathan Kramer and Leslie Alperin. Aaron was a featured performer at The Juilliard String Quartet Seminar and Bowdoin International Music Festival and a scholarship participant at Kent Blossom Music Festival, which culminated in a performance alongside The Cleveland Orchestra.