Avery Waite

Cello  | USA

Juilliard and Oberlin-trained cellist Avery Waite is a composer, performer, and international music education leader who has performed and taught at music programs around the world, including Afghanistan, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Jamaica, and El Salvador among others.  Avery has performed in venues including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and Alice Tully Hall, and has performed alongside many renowned artists such as Itzhak Perlman. As a composer and arranger, he has done extensive arranging of traditional Indo-Afghan, Central Asian and Kurdish folk music. His ensemble Drifting East recently released its debut album, Songs and Melodies of Afghanistan.

In his current role as Program Director for the global music education organization MusAid, he leads socially-minded music projects in countries emerging from poverty and conflict by leading volunteer teaching workshops and fellowships. Avery is also on the faculty of American Voices, working at the forefront of cross-cultural engagement around the world. He was a 2016-17 Fulbright Scholar, focused on developing music programs across India