ARTIST BIOS

Ilya Finkelshteyn is Principal Cello of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, and the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center. Ilya started his education at the Special Music School at the St. Petersburg Conservatory under the tutelage of Sergei Chernyadiev. After immigrating to the United States, he studied with Tanya Remenikova for one year at the University of Minnesota School of Music, and then went on to study at The Juilliard School with Harvey Shapiro.

Ilya has appeared as a soloist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, and National Repertory Orchestra, among others. His skillful playing has led to prizes in the Brahms International Competition, Concertino Praga, Russian Cello Competition, and the WAMSO International Competition.

Prior to joining the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as Principal Cello in 2009, Ilya was Principal Cello of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under the direction of the late Yuri Temirkanov, and also previously played with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra under the late Hans Vonk.

Mr. Finkelshteyn frequently gives masterclasses and has been invited as a guest teacher at festivals across the country including the National Orchestral Institute + Festival and Tennessee Cello Workshop. He was also a Mentor for the CSO/CCM Diversity Fellowship Program, and currently teaches a small number of private cello lessons. During the school year, he is on faculty at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Ilya plays on a 1730 Domenico Montagnana cello courtesy of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

Cellist Ania Lewis joined the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as the newly appointed Assistant Principal Cellist in the fall of 2026. With a strong love for orchestral playing, Lewis has also performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, and the Boston Symphony.

Lewis started studying cello at the age of 6 before moving to Cleveland, Ohio a few years later. She made her solo debut with the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra at age 14. An avid chamber musician, she was featured as a part of Curtis on Tour playing a guitar quartet program with Roberto Díaz and Jason Vieaux. She has also collaborated with other prominent artists such as the Rosamunde String Quartet, Steven Tenenbom, Ben Beilman, Jonathan Biss, Erin Keefe, and members of the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras. Lewis was invited to the Verbier Festival Orchestra where she served as principal cellist. Her other festival appearances include Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, and Fontainebleau.

Lewis holds a Bachelor’s degree and a post baccalaureate certificate from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Peter Wiley, Christine Lee, Yumi Kendall, Nick Canellakis, and Gary Hoffman. She spent her high school years earning a certificate from the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Young Artists Program, studying with Stephen Geber, Mark Kosower, and Martha Baldwin.

A native of Tucson, Arizona, cellist Nicholas Mariscal has been a member of the cello section of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra since May of 2023. Beginning in 2021, he held the position of Assistant Principal Cello of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and served as the orchestra’s Acting Principal Cello during the 2023-24 season.

Mariscal has appeared as guest principal cellist with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra in their tour of South Korea, and has performed as principal cello of the Fjord Cadenza Festival in Ålesund, Norway. An alumnus of the New World Symphony in Miami, Mariscal was a winner of the orchestra’s concerto competition, performing the Khachaturian Cello Concerto-Rhapsody. Later in 2018, he made his solo debut performing the same work with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, he is a top prize winner in the Sphinx, Edith Knox, and Indiana University Latin American Music Center competitions.

As an ardent performer of new and lesser-known music, Mariscal has been involved in dozens of premieres of new works, and has performed extensively as a member of the Aspen, Indiana University, and USC new music ensembles. A passionate proponent of Latin American music, he has recorded music for unaccompanied cello by composers including Osvaldo Golijov, Alberto Ginastera, and Paul Desenne in an album entitled Nubes Bajas. Also a dedicated chamber musician, Mariscal has performed with artists including Midori Goto, Jorja Fleezanis, Tamás Varga, Atar Arad, and Peter Takács. Since joining the Cincinnati Symphony, he had performed as a member of the Red Door String Quartet, comprised of Cincinnati Symphony musicians.

Mariscal received his Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University, studying with Eric Kim, and attained graduate degrees from the University of Southern California, where he studied with Ralph Kirshbaum and David Geringas.

Cellist Daniel Kaler began his initial studies at the age of four with Donna Davis and Gilda Barston. He continued his private studies with Hans Jørgen Jensen of the Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music and Stephen Balderston of the DePaul University School of Music. He received his Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Master of Music in Cello Performance from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, having studied with Mark Kosower and Brinton Smith, respectively. In 2022, Kaler joined the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and later in 2024 the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.

Kaler attended and gave performances at many summer programs and festivals, such as the Chautauqua Music Festival, Keshet Eilon Summer Mastercourse, Sarasota Music Festival, Heifetz International Music Institute, Bowdoin International Music Festival, North Shore Chamber Music Festival, Music In The Loft, Young Steinway Concert Series, and Chicago Cultural Center. He has appeared on WFMT’s “Introductions”, WCLV, as well as WCPN’s “Applause Performances”.

Jacqueline Pegis is an emerging cellist and teacher based out of Cincinnati, Ohio. Having recently finished her Master’s degree in Cello Performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music under Richard Weiss, Pegis is well trained in orchestral playing and served as CIM’s principal cellist on numerous programs. During her time at CIM, Pegis was the recipient of a generous loan of a 1923 Carl Becker cello from the Colburn Foundation. Previously, Pegis achieved her BM in Cello Performance from University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, where she studied under Ilya Finkelshteyn, and served as CCM’s principal cellist on many programs.

Additionally, Pegis has had a private coaching with members of the Kronos Quartet during their CCM residency, and was listed as principal cellist and soloist for the CCM Carnegie Hall tour where she performed ‘Something Beautiful’ with American actress and singer Liz Callaway. Pegis has had several years of teaching experience, including her summer as a faculty member of the Encore Coda Music Festival in Sweden, Maine where she was a private teacher, chamber and sectional coach, and performer. In August of 2026 Pegis was appointed principal cellist of the Lima Symphony Orchestra, and she currently teaches private lessons at the Piano Preparatory School in Beavercreek, Ohio.

Cellist Osheen Manukyan is the Resident Fellow of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Originally from Los Angeles, Manukyan has appeared at festivals across the United States such as the Music Academy of the West in California, the Sarasota Festival in Florida, and the Aspen Festival in Colorado, where he was a fellowship recipient. He was the winner of the Colburn Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition in 2017, and has appeared on NPR’s From the Top at Walt Disney Concert Hall. As an orchestral musician, Manukyan has performed as principal cellist under conductors such as Marin Alsop, Stéphane Denève, and JoAnn Falletta.

On top of his activities as a performer, Manukyan is a dedicated pedagogue, and maintains a private cello studio. He previously worked as a teaching artist at Harmony Project, a non-profit organization providing music education to children in underserved communities in Los Angeles.

Manukyan received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School in New York, where he was a scholarship student of Timothy Eddy. Prior to his collegiate training, he studied with Richard Naill at the Colburn School in Los Angeles.

Costa Rican-American cellist Diana Flores is a multifaceted musician and educator based in Cincinnati, Ohio, whose work spans orchestral performance, chamber music, and collaborative artistic initiatives. She performs regularly with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and has appeared with the Minnesota Orchestra, Boston Pops, Grant Park Music Festival, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, and Sarasota Orchestra, among others. She has participated in summer festivals including the Tanglewood Music Center, Pacific Music Festival in Japan, and Campos do Jordão Festival in Brazil.

Since 2022, Diana has been a member of Sphinx Virtuosi, with whom she has recorded two albums for Deutsche Grammophon: Songs for Our Times and American Mirror. She is also co-director of Continuo, a Cincinnati-based chamber music initiative dedicated to creating, collaborating, and connecting through the universal art of music.

Born in Maracaibo, Venezuela, Andrés Celis began studying cello at eight at the Conservatorio de Música José Luis Paz with Carolina Teruel. He later studied at the New World School of the Arts in Miami, FL and received a Presidential Scholarship to study at Boston Conservatory under Rhonda Rider. Celis has participated in summer programs at the National Repertory Orchestra, Round Top Summer Institute, and National Orchestral Institute, among others. Celis has served as a substitute cellist in the New Jersey Symphony and New World Symphony. He currently studies at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music with Prof. Ilya Finkelshteyn in the master's program. Andrés’s cello is provided by the Virtu Foundation.