Mihai Tetel, Associate Professor of Cello at Ball State University and cellist of the American Piano Trio, began his musical studies in his native Romania at the famed George Enescu Music School. Settling in Canada in 1979, he graduated in 1984 from the University of Toronto as an honors student of the celebrated virtuoso, Vladimir Orloff. He earned a master's degree from the Juilliard School in 1986 and a Professional Studies Diploma from the Mannes School in New York in 1988. His principal cello teachers have included Lorne Munroe and Timothy Eddy.
Tetel was a winner of the 1987 Artists International Competition, which awarded as its prize a New York recital debut at Weill Hall of Carnegie Hall. Prior competition triumphs include First Prize in the Koussevitsky Competition (1984), Montreal Symphony Competition (1983), Canadian Music Competition (1982), and the Toronto Symphony Concerto Competition (1980).
He has appeared as soloist with the Montreal Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Edmonton Symphony, Sao Paulo Symphony (Brazil), Thessaloniki Symphony (Greece), and Odeion Wind Ensemble (Holland), collaborating with conductors such as Charles Dutoit, Andrew Davis, Boris Brott, and Victor Feldbrill. As a recitalist, he has toured Canada, Chile, Colombia, Hungary, Japan, Romania, and the United States.
Prior to his appointment at Ball State University, Tetel has been on the faculty of the Glenn Gould Professional School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and has served as Director of the Alberta College Conservatory of Music in Edmonton. He has been invited to give master classes at the University of Michigan, Louisiana State University, Cleveland Institute of Music, Royal Academy in Seoul (Korea), McGill University (Montreal), Oberlin Conservatory, Indiana University String Academy (Bloomington), University of Maine, Houston High School for the Performing Arts, Camp Encore, and Meadowmount. He is director and founder of the ARIA International Summer Academy, a highly successful program which offers intensive, professional training to young musicians from all over the world.
Tetel has released a CD of Spanish works for cello and piano on the Tristan label, and has collaborated on several CD's with cellist Ofra Harnoy for the RCA-Red Seal label. He has been heard on broadcasts on National Public Radio, Indiana Public Radio, and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
As chamber musician, Tetel has appeared in concert with violinists James Buswell, Victor Danchenko, Lorand Fenyves, Jacques Israelievitch, Ilya Kaler, Felicia Moye, Richard Roberts, Lucie Robert, Lynn Chang, David Russell, and Peter Zazofsky; violists Atar Arad, Victoria Chiang, Steven Dann, Patricia McCarty, and Marcus Thompson; cellists Pamela Frame, Vladimir Orloff, Susan Moses, and Ofra Harnoy; pianists Robert McDonald, Barry Snyder, Jamie Parker, Kathryn Brown, Daniel Shapiro, Edmund Battersby, Robert Palmer, Ronald Turini, and Charles Webb; flutists Bonita Boyd, Carol Wincenc, and Eugenia Zuckerman.
