About
CELLAX
Cellax Duo (think cello + sax, how clever we are!) is a unique pairing of instruments and sound colors, comprised of cellist Daniel Ketter and saxophonist Zach Stern. Based in Missouri, Cellax covers a wide range of musical styles, bringing joy and a new flavor of music to their listeners. Their repertoire runs the gamut, from traditional classical music by the likes of Bach and Beethoven to contemporary compositions influenced by popular styles such as jazz, disco, and Spanish folk music. We invite you to chillax with Cellax and join us on our musical adventures!
The "Cell" and the "Ax"
Daniel Ketter is Co-Director and cellist of American Wild Ensemble (www.musicintheamericanwild.com), which celebrates the people and places that define American communities with new music. Since 2016, AWE has collaborated with ten different national parks and historic sites and commissioned and premiered over 35 new chamber music works for grant-funded projects celebrating the US National Park Service, 19th Amendment Centennial, Great Lakes Region, Frederick Law Olmstead Centennial, and programs promoting children’s literacy with support from National Endowment for the Arts, Washington’s National Park Fund, Chamber Music America, Mid-America Arts Alliance, The Paul R. Judy Center for Applied Research, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Missouri State University, Missouri Humanities Council, Missouri Arts Council, and New Music USA.
Daniel began his tenure as cellist of The Opus 76 String Quartet (www.opus76.org) in 2020. Recognized as “Kansas City’s String Quartet,” Opus 76 are currently Artists-in-Residence at the Midwest Trust Center at Johnson County Community College, where they present a full season of live and digital performances. In 2023 the Quartet performed their debut recital in Carnegie Hall.
As an ardent supporter of contemporary music, in 2021, Daniel founded the annual Cello Teaching Repertoire Consortium (www.celloteachingrep.com), with the mission to supplement traditional cello student repertoire with the commission of new pedagogical concert works and etudes representing diverse musical styles and cultural backgrounds. This project has commissioned six new works for cello students supported by cello teachers across the country, featured in workshops and performed by students at the Eastman Cello Institute, and presented at American String Teachers Association's 2022 and 2024 national conferences.
Since 2018 Daniel has served as faculty at Missouri State University, where he teaches courses in cello, chamber music, and music theory. As a teacher, he continues to present annual summer classes as faculty for the Eastman Cello Institute and works with Opus 76 as Quartet-in-Residence faculty for Youth Symphony of Kansas City. In Springfield, Daniel coaches chamber music for the annual Missouri State University String Fling for high school and college students in the region.
In 2020, Daniel completed a Ph.D. in Music Theory at Eastman School of Music, and he currently serves as Co-Chair for Society for Music Theory’s Performance and Analysis Interest Group. His research interests include essential voices in Schenkerian theory and performance and analysis.
In 2017 Daniel completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Eastman School of Music. Daniel has a MM in cello performance and pedagogy from Peabody Conservatory and graduated with high distinction from both Eastman School of Music (BM ’10, cello performance) and from University of Rochester (BA ’10, mathematics).
Daniel plays a cello made by H. C. Silvestre c. 1870 in Lyon, France.
Zach Stern enjoys a career as a saxophone soloist, chamber musician, and educator. Performances have taken him all over the world, including to such venues as Carnegie Hall, Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and Walt Disney Concert Hall. As the founding alto saxophonist of the Sinta Quartet, Zach has received top prizes at many of the country's most respected competitions, including the M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition, Concert Artists Guild Competition, Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, and Coleman Chamber Music Competition. He has performed as a featured soloist with many orchestras and bands including the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra, the Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra, and the French Republican Guard Band. Zach has also performed as an orchestral saxophonist with the St. Louis, Paducah, Mobile, and Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestras.
As an educator, Zach is the Lecturer of Saxophone at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and Instructor of Music at Southeast Missouri State University. During the summer, he teaches at the South Shore Conservatory's Summer Music Festival in Hingham, MA. Zach regularly presents saxophone master classes at universities, high schools, and middle schools around the country, and is in demand as a saxophone clinician and adjudicator.
Zach holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Saxophone Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music and earned his master's and bachelor's degrees in Saxophone Performance and Music Education at the University of Michigan, where he served as the teaching assistant for the saxophone studio. Zach’s primary saxophone teachers are Chien-Kwan Lin, Donald Sinta, and Scott Plugge.
Zach is a Conn-Selmer Artist and performs exclusively on Selmer-Paris saxophones.