A versatile artist, cellist Carol Ou is known for her “fiery, marvelous” and “meltingly melodic outpourings” (Boston Globe) and her “wonderfully pure cello tone and incisive technique.” (The Strad) A founding member of the Buswell-Ou Duo and a former member of the Carpe Diem String Quartet, Ms. Ou’s solo and chamber music concerts have taken her to prestigious concert venues across the globe. Other collaborations have been with celebrated artists Hillary Hahn, Timothy Eddy, Pascal Rogé, András Schiff, Raul Juarena, and Jayme Stone at the Marlboro Music Festival, Summerfest La Jolla, Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Austin Chamber Music Center, Nevada Chamber Music Festival, and other noted music festivals.
At ease with the diverse musical styles of the last five centuries, Ms. Ou regularly programs traditional European masterworks with more eclectic works in concert. She has recorded three of the most beloved cello concerti by Haydn, Tchaikovsky, and Elgar and premiered several new compositions written for her. She gave the first performance of Hsiao Tyzen's Cello Concerto in Taipei and collaborated with Hsiao on the premiere of a number of solo and chamber music works throughout the US and Singapore. American composers - Richard Toensing and Daniel Pinkham - have also dedicated works to her. Other unusual works that she has performed include Tan Dun's Ghost Opera for string quartet and pipa, Peter Sculthorpe's string quartet with didjeridu, and Reza Vali’s Ashoob for string quartet and the Persian santoor.
Carol Ou’s discography includes solo and chamber music discs issued by Chi-Mei, Naxos, CRI, and Albany Records. Her three solo and concerti recordings are all issued by the Chi-Mei Foundation Label in Taiwan. Among her many recordings with the Carpe Diem String Quartet are Sergei Taneyev’s String Quartets (Vol. 4 & 5) on Naxos and “The Book of Calligraphy”- solo cello and string quartet works by Reza Vali - issued by Albany Records. Her recording of Walter Piston's Chamber Music won the 2001 Chamber Music America's Best Chamber Music CD award.
A graduate of Yale University, Ms. Ou received her BA magna cum laude from Yale College and her MM and DMA in music performance from the Yale School of Music. She has taught cello students at Yale and MIT, and was the director of strings, chamber music and orchestral studies at Gordon College. Between 2006-2013, she was also the director of chamber music at the Heifetz International Music Institute in Wolfeboro, NH and Staunton, VA. She is currently an artist cello faculty at the NYU Steinhardt School of Music and is the assistant chair of strings at the School of Continuing Education at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. In addition to her regular teaching duties, Ms. Ou travels internationally to teach cello and chamber music master classes on five continents, most recently in Hong Kong, Turkey, and Italy. B.A., magna cum laude, Yale University. M.M., M.M.A., D.M.A., Yale School of Music. Studies with Ronald Leonard, Janos Starker, Aldo Parisot. Former faculty of MIT and Gordon College (director of strings, chamber music, and orchestral studies).