about

Australian-Salvadoran cellist Dr. Ruben Palma is a freelance musician living and working on unceded Gadigal land. Ruben began to play the cello aged 6, and spent nine years studying with Lindy Reksten at the Canberra School of Music. Ruben later studied with Julian Smiles, Howard Penny (at the Australian National Academy of Music), and Nicolas Altstaedt (at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln), and also undertook masterclasses and lessons with Steven Isserlis, David Geringas, Johannes Moser, Alban Gergardt, Uzi Wiesel, Maria Kliegel, Gabriel Schwabe, Pieter Wispelwey, Daniel Yeadon, and Gary Hoffman.

Ruben is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (graduating with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree with a doctoral thesis on ornamentation in J.S. Bach's Six Cello Suites). He regularly performs both Australia-wide and abroad, including performances in Germany, the U.S.A., the U.K., China, and El Salvador, and at festivals such as the Adelaide International Cello Fesitval, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and the Canberra International Music Festival. As soloist, Ruben has performed concerti by Schumann, Elgar, and Haydn, as well as Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations.

Ruben was a state finalist in the 2008 Symphony Australia Young Performers Awards, a finalist and prizewinner in the 2014 Australian Cello Awards, the 2015 Australian Chamber Orchestra Emerging Artist, and partook in the 2017 Sydney Symphony Orchestra Fellowship program. His solo and chamber music performances have been broadcast by Australian Digital Concert Hall, ABC Classic FM, 702 ABC Sydney, 3MBS, and FM 102.5 Sydney Fine Music. Ruben's cello was made in 2017 by Yanbing Chen.