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 six, and spent nine years studying with Lindy Reksten at the Canberra School of Music. He 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 HfMT Köln, and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (where he graduated with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree with a dissertation on ornamentation in J.S. Bach's Six Cello Suites, as well as a recording of the complete Bach Cello Suites). He regularly performs both Australia-wide and abroad, including concerts at the Adelaide International Cello Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Canberra International Music Festival, and the 2014 G20 Brisbane summit, where he performed for president Barack Obama as a member of the Australian Youth Orchestra String Quartet. As soloist, Ruben has performed concerti by Schumann, Elgar, and Haydn, as well as Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations.

Ruben's performances  have been broadcast by Australian Digital Concert Hall, ABC Classic FM, 702 ABC Sydney, 3MBS, and FM 102.5 Sydney Fine Music. He plays on a 2017 Yanbing Chen cello.