Called “astounding,” (Boston Musical Intelligencer) and “a rising star,” (Bay Area Reporter) cellist Justin Dougherty annually performs upwards of thirty concerts as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States and abroad.
Widely known as a serious advocate of the expansion of the cello repertory, Mr. Dougherty has given premieres of nearly 40 new works by composers such as David Rakowski, Gunther Schuller, and Steven Stucky, and has commissioned more than two dozen unaccompanied and chamber music works by composers including Emily Cooley, Dominick DiOrio, Bruce Trinkley, and members of Boston’s Fifth Floor Collective. Since 2010, he has given more than 200 performances of his ongoing new music recital project Queering the Pitch, including repeat engagements at New York’s Carnegie Hall.
Mr. Dougherty has frequently collaborated with performers such as cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Judith Gordon, violinist William Pu, and has performed with Chamber Cartel, a Georgia-based ensemble committed to new, contemporary classical music. In 2009, Mr. Dougherty joined with his long-time friend, dramatic soprano Meredith Bloomfield, to form the Counterpointe Duo expressly to commission, develop, and perform the repertory for their soprano-cello combination.
A sought-after teacher, Mr. Dougherty maintains one of the largest independent private studios of young cellists in the southeastern United States. His students have been named principal cello in the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, Emory Youth Symphony, Georgia Youth Symphony Orchestra, and the Georgia All-State Orchestras. Since 2015, nearly one dozen students have been selected to the Georgia Governor’s Honors Program, while more than 75 of his students have successfully auditioned for the Georgia All-State Orchestras in that time. His students have been accepted to study music at Oberlin Conservatory, Indiana University, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, New England Conservatory, and the University of Michigan, among others. Mr. Dougherty has presented lectures and masterclasses at numerous colleges and universities, including the University of South Florida and his alma mater, Penn State University.
Justin Dougherty holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Pennsylvania State University, a Master of Music degree from The Boston Conservatory, and earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Georgia. While at The Boston Conservatory, Mr. Dougherty was the assistant to his mentor, the renowned cellist Rhonda Rider. He studied with Joel Krosnick at Juilliard, and his primary teachers include Kim Cook, David Diehl, Judith Eissenberg, and Robert Nairn.
Mr. Dougherty is a long-since-lapsed vegetarian who lives and practices in suburban Atlanta. You can find him running along one of Atlanta's many rail-trails, throwing a ball to his Aussie, Sir Otis, or out with his friends and family, enjoying all the great wine and food that the south has to offer.