Debra Pearson

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Debra Pearson has been a member of the Arizona Opera Orchestra since 1990, and became its Principal Cellist in 1995. She earned Bachelor of Music degrees in cello performance and music theory from Kansas University, where her principal teachers were Raymond Stuhl and Charles K. Hoag, and a Master of Music degree in cello performance from the University of Southern California, where she studied with Gabor Rejto and coached chamber music with Eudice Shapiro, Eleanore Schoenfeld and Alice Schoenfeld.

She freelanced in Los Angeles for several years, doing recording sessions and playing for live shows before moving to Phoenix with her family. She is an active freelancer, music arranger, adjudicator, guest clinician and private teacher, and designed the strings adjudication score sheet currently used by the Arizona Band and Orchestra Directors Association for its regional orchestra and all-state orchestra auditions. She is an active participant with the Arizona-American String Teachers Association’s annual Cellobration! A Day for Cellists, where she teaches classes and has conducted the large cello ensembles, including her own arrangements of music.

She has also held the position of Principal Cellist of the Mesa Symphony Orchestra; has been a guest artist at ASU with The New Music Ensemble and on graduate level and faculty recitals, and at the University of Arizona; has taught music in the public schools; and has substituted with the Phoenix Symphony. For a number of years, Debra has traveled to Graz, Austria during the summer to perform with the American Institute of Musical Studies Festival Orchestra, where she has also performed chamber music.