Ronda Metszies

Cello

Ronda Metszies is proud to be a second-generation member of the ESO, following the trail blazed for her by her mother Hope, who played violin in the orchestra in the 1950s and 60s.

Having been raised in Edmonton, Ronda moved away several times to continue her studies, first at the University of Victoria, then to Germany, and finally to Los Angeles. However, after several years in each location, Edmonton kept pulling her back like a bungee cord, until she settled here permanently upon winning her position with the ESO in 2003.

Ronda has a special interest in early music, and is principal cellist of the Alberta Baroque Ensemble, with whom she has played since 2005. She has made several appearances as a guest soloist with the group and, in 2015, she premiered Alan Gilliland’s Concerto for Cello, Strings and Harpsichord, which was commissioned by the ensemble for her.

Ronda is also a founding member of Kent Sangster’s Obsessions Octet, whose debut jazz CD was nominated for a Juno Award in 2007. Since then, the octet has released three additional CDs, toured Europe twice, and performed at Carnegie Hall in 2012. They also performed at the Rochester Jazz Festival in 2016, where their concert was recorded for national broadcast by PBS.

If there was one musician Ronda would like to meet in heaven, assuming she makes it there, it would have to be Bach. His writing somehow lives at the conjunction of humanity and divinity, and is a constant source of wonder to her.