Joshua McClendon

About Joshua

Born in 1999, cellist Joshua McClendon began his cello studies at the age of eight under the tutelage of cellist Paul Wingert.

McClendon studied at Interlochen Arts Camp for six summers before continuing his training at Interlochen Arts Academy under Crispin Campbell.

In 2018, he entered his undergraduate studies at the Juilliard School where he studied with Professors Richard Aaron and Timothy Eddy.

Other important mentors of his have included Joel Krosnick, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Natasha Brofsky, Astrid Schween, Miriam Fried, Jonathan Koh, Roger Tapping, and Laurie Smukler.

A founding member of the Isidore String Quartet, McClendon has gained international recognition after winning the First Prize and Haydn Prize at the 2022 Banff International String Quartet Competition. In Spring of 2023, the Isidore Quartet received an Avery Fisher Career Grant, becoming the youngest ensemble in the program’s history to do so. Since, as a member of ISQ, he has made debuts throughout North America and Europe including chamber music societies of Seattle, San Antonio, Evanston, the Kennedy Center, and more, as well as summer music festivals such as Edinburgh International Festival, Lucerne Festival, Bravo! Vail, and Toronto Summer Music.

McClendon has had the great fortune of collaborating with artists such as James Ehnes, Jeremy Denk, Shai Wosner, Efe Baltacigil, Jon Nakamatsu, Barry Shiffman, and the Adelphi and Leonkoro Quartets.

McClendon performs on a Giovanni Grancino cello, Milan c. 1697 on loan from Rare Violins In Consortium, Artists and Benefactors Collaborative.