Jules Biber is a cellist, educator and musical curator based in Brooklyn, NY.  An accomplished chamber musician and soloist, Jules’ versatility in early, standard and modern repertoire, as well as non-classical styles, makes her sought-after for a variety of high-profile concerts and recording projects, and her deep commitment to inclusive community has made her one of the city’s progressive curators of classical music spaces.

Jules believes strongly in creating environments for classical music that are free from the concert hall’s antiquated aesthetics. Her first series, Classical at Pete’s at Pete’s Candy Store in Williamsburg (later Branded Classical at Branded Saloon), created a platform for performers and composers to present their work with the freedom to experiment, in an environment that was equally welcoming to the listener. Classical at Pete’s/Branded Classical was home to a wide variety of performers, including members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, International Contemporary Ensemble, and New York Philharmonic Orchestra. 

In 2019, Jules co-founded ChamberQUEER, an LGBTQ+ chamber music organization devoted to presenting and performing queer composers and musicians and highlighting historical queer figures in classical music. Based in Brooklyn, NY, it is in its third season of events serving the greater NYC community by creating an alternative, inclusive space within the classical music scene, supported in part by the Brooklyn Arts Fund and New Music USA. It has received write-ups in the New Yorker and New Music Box, and been presented by Death of Classical, WQXR at the Greene Space, Boulanger Initiative, and Brooklyn Pride.

Equally experienced on mainstream stages, Jules has played with the New Jersey Symphony, PUBLIQuartet, American Contemporary Music Ensemble, and has been heard in venues such as Carnegie Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Greene Space, and Zankel Hall.

Jules regularly makes appearances on more intimate series around NYC such as at Barbes, NY Cello Society, Music in Midtown, Con Vivo Music, and Green-Wood Cemetery with Death of Classical. She is a regular presence on the Broadway circuit, playing in the pit orchestras for Tootsie, Oklahoma, and Beetlejuice.

Jules has toured, performed, arranged and recorded with folk and rock groups in NYC and beyond, including Susan Werner, Erin McKeown, Peter Yarrow, Portland Cello Project, Girlyman, Edison Woods, Natalia Zukerman, and Cat Martino, and has been heard on WQXR, WNYC Soundcheck, WFUV and WUMB, among others.

Chamber music is Jules’ favorite music to play, and she does as much of it as possible. She was a founding cellist of the Pikes Falls Chamber Music Festival in 2012, where she was the cellist-in-residence until 2017, bringing chamber music to the greater Jamaica, Vermont community. She was also a founding member of the Toronto-based Elixir Quartet, a string quartet dedicated to the performance of the great string quartet repertoire on period instruments. She recently began a duo collaboration with soprano Danielle Buonaiuto, Duo Calisto, focusing on developing and commissioning new repertoire for cello and voice. 

Jules has participated in music festivals at Kneisel Hall, Taos School of Music, Tanglewood and Banff Centre. Primary teachers have included Richard Aaron at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Barbara Stein-Mallow at the Mannes College of Music, Julia Lichten at Purchase College and Marcy Rosen at the Graduate Center at CUNY. Jules received her DMA from the CUNY Graduate Center, where her dissertation, published in 2016, focused on the 10 Etudes for Solo Cello by Sofia Gubaidulina. She currently serves on the music faculty at Hunter College.