Mosa Tsay is a contemporary-minded cellist and concert experience designer currently based in New York City.

A recipient of the 2019-20 Fulbright Award and Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship, Mosa studied with Anssi Karttunen in Paris, focusing on works for the cello by Paris-based composers (Kaija Saariaho, Betsy Jolas, and Pascal Dusapin). In New York City, Mosa performs with Wavefield Ensemble, and has been a frequent collaborator with International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) for the premiere of multimedia opera “Echo Drift” at PROTOTYPE Festival and Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s album, AEQUA. She has collaborated with more than 30 composers in her work with AXIOM, New Juilliard Ensemble, and Eco Ensemble. Mosa is an alumna of Doublestop Foundation and performed as an ambassador of the foundation after winning its Instrument Loan Competition in 2014. She was featured as a soloist (Schelomo and Schumann Cello Concerto) with the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, as winner of its Concerto Competition. Performance highlights include a Juilliard Orchestra tour to Stockholm and Helsinki with Esa-Pekka Salonen, Carnegie Hall with Juilliard Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop, and performances with Joseph Silverstein and Danish String Quartet. Mosa has performed in masterclasses for Yo-Yo Ma, Frans Helmerson, Tamás Varga (Vienna Philharmonic), Gary Hoffman, and Paul Katz.

As former Artistic Director of Celli@Berkeley and a San Francisco-based collective of cellists, Mosa commissioned and premiered new works for celli and electronics in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2014, she co-produced Celli@Berkeley’s debut CD album in collaboration with composer Jared Redmond and Grammy-winning Barry Phillips. 

Mosa received her Master of Music from The Juilliard School. She holds bachelor's degrees in Music and in Society and Environment from UC Berkeley. While studying environmental science, she discovered an interest in urban planning and mitigation of noise pollution. Her music honors thesis explored “Silence: In Performance and Within the Performer,” an analysis of the role of silence in music by J.S. Bach, Hans Werner Henze, and John Cage.

Born to Taiwanese parents, she began her cello studies at age seven in San Diego. Her past teachers include Joel Krosnick, Jonathan Koh, and Catherine Godden.

Presenting music outside of traditional performance spaces.

Mosa is the Executive Director of Groupmuse Foundation, a parallel nonprofit to Groupmuse that supports musicians’ needs during the pandemic and increases diversity in music programming. Mosa has performed 100+ groupmuses in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York. She now advocates for cooperativism among musicians and setting up grassroots decentralized infrastructures of hyperlocal financial support of musicians.

Mosa produced concerts for Celli@Berkeley, a 12-piece cello ensemble, at the Berkeley Art Museum. In 2016, she launched Celloscape, a collective of 14 cellists and composers dedicated to premiering new works for the cello.

Other Projects.

Mosa is co-founder and U.S. Executive Director of Versoi Ensemble, a collaboration between Finnish and American musicians from a joint orchestra tour of Juilliard and Sibelius Academy students. Versoi Ensemble debuted at the United Nations, Kaufman Center’s Merkin Hall in New York and Holley Hall in Sarasota, Florida in November 2018.

As an arts administrator, she has contributed to The Juilliard School, Marlboro Music Festival, American Composers Orchestra, and International Contemporary Ensemble. Mosa serves as a fundraising consultant for emerging artists and new projects.

Listen.

Performances.

December 19, 2022 — Talea Ensemble: Solstices

July 2, 2020 — “Betsy Jolas - Bridge between Worlds” @ Fondation des États-Unis (Paris, France) <Performance Video>

January 23, 2020 — Wavefield Ensemble: Boulez Dérive 2 @ North Carolina New Music Initiative (Greenville, NC)

February 26, 2020 — Fondation des États-Unis + Fulbright Concert (Paris, France)