Roberta Bottelli

Cello

Roberta Bottelli stays busy as a cellist, conductor, and teacher.  She teaches cello and chamber music at Whitworth University and Holy Names Music Center, and is a coach in the Spokane Symphony’s Young Musician Education Program (YMEP).  Roberta often adjudicates for the Washington State Music Educators’ Association, coaching and critiquing cellists, chamber music groups, and high school and middle school orchestras.  In 2014 Dr. Bottelli became the conductor of the Spokane Youth Philharmonic Orchestra.

As a soloist, Roberta has performed with orchestras across the northwest, including the Lake Chelan Bach Fest orchestra, the Pacific Northwest Chamber Orchestra, and the Mid-Columbia Symphony, and she premiered Robert Prichard’s “Beneath the Skin” for solo cello and computer in 2006.  An active orchestral musician, Roberta was the principal cellist of the Lake Chelan Bach Fest orchestra and the Mid-Columbia Symphony, and she performed with Vancouver New Music and Victoria’s Aventa ensemble.  Other orchestral performance experience includes the Northwest Bach Festival orchestra, Coeur d’ Alene Opera, Westminster Chamber Orchestra, and Washington East Opera.

Roberta loves collaborating as a chamber musician and is currently the cellist for the Riverside String Trio in Spokane.  She was the founding cellist of Trio sTREga and the Cerberus Trio and her piano trio (Elan Piano Trio) was the winner of the 2004 Neskowin Chamber Music Fellowship.  She frequently performs with Whitworth faculty and colleagues for recitals and the Spokane Symphony’s Chamber Soirée concert series.  Dr. Bottelli completed her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada and also holds degrees from Eastern Washington University (MA), Central Washington University (MM), and the University of Puget Sound (BA).  Roberta has been the third chair cellist in the Spokane Symphony since 2006.