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Justin Lepard is an innovative, genre-defying cello virtuoso. Originally from Nebraska, he studied with Juilliard alumni Greg Beaver of the former Chiara Quartet, as well as studying jazz with trumpet faculty Darryl White. In college he found a niche playing contemporary classical music, and with that won an audition to play in the Lucerne Festival Academy in Switzerland, which subsequently led to a series of short tours in Europe. Always a musician who wanted music to feel good and not just be intellectualized, Justin continued with his own endeavors composing, producing, creating content, and developing jazz improvisation skills as the core of his cello playing. He spent the previous 6 years living in LA, where he got some cool opportunities to play in movies like The Invisible Man (screen credit), and Bad Boys III (as part of an RMA orchestra at Warner Bros). But a love of vanlife and the outdoors led him and his wife to venture up the coast more and more, and are now in demand private event musicians in the Portland area (Alexis plays violin). Justin’s YouTube channel (Justin Lepard Psychedelic Cello) continues to grow as he pushes the boundaries of cello and musical storytelling for an online audience.

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Education

Bachelor of Music, University of Nebraska, Lincoln (graduated 2015)

 

I have also attended many prestigious music camps and festivals, including Greenwood (2011), Brevard (2012), the Jamey Aebersold Workshop (2013)

the Lucerne Festival Academy (2014, 2016), Banff (2016), Darmstadt (2016)

 

Films Featured As Soloist

Human Sun (2018), Little Fig (2019), For the Love (2019)

Togo - on Disney+ (2019), The Invisible Man (2020)

Where’s Rose (2021)

 

Online Accomplishments

Among the top users for live cello & strings on Gigsalad.com;

Have gone viral on Youtube and TikTok several times:

(How to play cello, FKJ Just Piano (& Cello), How high can a cello really play?,

Wednesday Addams played for real, Metallica solo on cello, etc)

Filmed over 50 lesson videos for the channels Consordini and HigherHZ

Have grown my YouTube to almost 6k subscribers, TikTok 12k, instagram 1.2k

Every calendar year starting in 2019, my YouTube subscriber-ship has tripled

 

Timeline of Other Notable Accomplishments

Attended prestigious Lucerne Festival Academy, and subsequently performed on tour in Europe (2014-2016);

Ran a series of new music concerts in Lincoln, NE (2015);

Gave a TEDx talk on the importance of an eclectic approach to music (2015);

Was accepted to Masters programs at William-Paterson and California Institute of the Arts (2017) [did not attend];

Recorded for a unique sampled instrument, now available through Nightfox Audio as String Central (2018)

Recorded in the orchestra for Bad Boys 3 (2019)

Performed with a variety of orchestras and private events in the Los Angeles area, and with artists including Lisa Ono and Shahkar (2017-2022)

Performed as a successful private event duo with my partner Alexis as the 

Lepard String Duo around the Portland, OR area (2022-2024)

Have been a partner artist with the emerging remote recording platform of only world class players, Musiversal, since early 2024