Arizona-based cellist Nick Alvarez enjoys a varied career as an orchestral, solo, and chamber musician. Prior to arriving in Arizona, he was a member of the El Paso Symphony Orchestra and assistant principal cellist of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. He has played under the batons of Daniel Barenboim, Kurt Masur, Pierre Boulez, Christoph Eschenbach, James Levine, David Robertson, and Osmo Vänskä.

In 2005, he was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center (TMC) in Massachusetts, where he served as principal cellist of the TMC Orchestra. In addition he has performed at the Texas Music Festival, the Killington Music Festival, and the Pablo Casals Festival in France. He has performed in master classes for Joel Krosnick, Laurence Lesser, Bernard Greenhouse, Steven Isserlis, and Yo-Yo Ma.

As a musician in the Phoenix area, he performs regularly with the Phoenix Symphony, Arizona Opera, the Downtown Chamber Series, and has appeared at the Red Rocks Festival in Sedona. Moreover,he is principal cellist of the Eroica Ensemble, a chamber orchestra conducted by Michael Gilbert, in Memphis, Tennessee.

Recently, Alvarez has undertaken three residencies at the Banff Centre in Canada. In September of 2008 he toured western Canada with a chamber orchestra alongside Canadian pianist Yuval Fichman to celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Centre. As a part of his residencies, he has also collaborated with several artists from across North America and around the world including pianist Piers Lane and violinist Barry Shiffman.

A versitle musician equally comfortable with traditional and contemporary repertoire, Alvarez's recent projects have included collaborations with composer Louis Andriessen, the Canadian premier of Doug Harbin’s Suite for cello in three parts, Leo Ornstein’s complete works for cello and piano with pianist Keith Kirchoff, Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, and a series of Beethoven sonatas with pianist Liang-yu Wang.

Alvarez holds a Master of Music from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, a Bachelor or Music degree from the University of North Texas, and is currently completing a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in cello performance at Arizona State University where he served as Thomas Landschoot’s Teaching Assistant. His principal teachers were Carter Enyeart, John Sharp, and Thomas Landschoot.