Australian-Salvadoran cellist Dr. Ruben Palma is an award-winning freelance musician and pedagogue based in Sydney. Ruben began to play the cello aged 6, and spent nine years studying with Lindy Reksten at the Canberra School of Music. Ruben later studied with Julian Smiles, Howard Penny (at the Australian National Academy of Music), and Nicolas Altstaedt. He also undertook masterclasses and lessons with Steven Isserlis, David Geringas, Johannes Moser, Alban Gergardt, Uzi Wiesel, Maria Kliegel, Gabriel Schwabe, Pieter Wispelwey, Daniel Yeadon, and Gary Hoffman.
Ruben’s international career has included performances in Germany, the U.S.A., Scotland, England, China, and El Salvador. As soloist, Ruben has performed Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor, Schumann Cello Concerto in A minor, and Haydn’s Cello Concerto no. 1.
Ruben is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln (where in 2014 he completed a Master of Music Violoncello Solo degree in the class of Nicolas Altstaedt), and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where in in 2020 he graduated with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree with a doctoral thesis concentrating upon ornamentation in J.S. Bach’s Six Cello Suites.
Ruben currently teaches at AIM, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music High School, and Woollahra Public School.
