Lars Hoefs

Cellist/USA-Brazil

Originally from Appleton, Wisconsin, LARS HOEFS is currently professor of cello and music history at Sao Paulo State University in Campinas (UNICAMP), consistently ranked the 2nd or 3rd best university in Latin America.

In Brazil Lars has performed as soloist with orchestras in Barra Mansa, Campinas, Campos do Jordao, Manaus, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, and Sorocaba, and has been a frequent guest at the Rio International Cello Encounters and Festival Virtuosi in Recife. With pianist and Polish Music Center director Marek Zebrowski, Lars has concertized in New York, London, France, Italy, Prague, and across Poland and the Ukraine. As cellist of the Blue Rose Trio Lars performed in Jerusalem, Shanghai, and Hong Kong; and as a member of the California Quartet he collaborated in residencies with composers including William Bolcom and Michael Daugherty.

Lars has established himself as a leading expert on the cello repertoire of Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. Formerly assistant principal cello of the Orquestra Sinfonica Brasileira in Rio de Janeiro, Lars was invited to perform the complete works for cello and piano of Villa-Lobos in 2012 for the 50th annual Festival Villa-Lobos at the Villa-Lobos Museum in Rio. Recently he was the first cellist ever to perform the complete works for cello and orchestra of Villa-Lobos together in one program. Currently, he is planning a Villa-Lobos festival for 2015 in conjunction with the University of California, Riverside.

He received his high school diploma from the North Carolina School of the Arts, a Bachelor of Music degree from Northwestern University studying with Hans Jorgen Jensen, and Master of Music and Doctorate of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, studying with Piatigorsky Chair and former LA Philharmonic principal cellist Ronald Leonard. Lars joined 2011 joined iPalpiti orchestra on its tour to Israel, and performed in numerous concerts.