Fiste, James

Dr. Fiste also performs yearly at Emerald Isle String Haven with the faculty string quartet. He performed in the Ashmont Hill Chamber Music Series in Boston, MA for many years with Rachel Goodwin (Artistic Director) and musicians from the Boston Symphony and Boston University faculty. Dr. Fiste has also performed for the Shoreline Music Society (Manistee, MI), Brandenburg Festival (Interlochen, MI), Leelanau Summer Music Festival (Leelanau, MI), Baroque on Beaver (Beaver Island, MI) where he was a featured soloist with the festival orchestra, MASTA Chamber Music Festival (Michigan State University), Cumberland County Playhouse Recital Series (Crossville, TN), Fontana Festival of Music and Art (Shelbyville, MI), Festival of Arkansas (Fayetteville, AR), and Hot Springs Music Festival (Hot Springs, AR).

A sought-after pedagogue, Dr. Fiste was invited to the 2018 Music for our Young (MOY) International Festival of Music in Hong Kong with whom he will continue to collaborate. He also regularly teaches and coaches chamber music at the Saarburg International Music Festival in Germany. Dr. Fiste has given numerous presentations at the Michigan Music Conference in Grand Rapids in addition to presenting at the American String Teachers National Convention. Committed to supporting music education, Dr. Fiste will frequently visit public school orchestra programs within and beyond the state of Michigan to provide master classes and hold various cello workshops. He is also faculty advisor for the ASTA student chapter at CMU and is overseeing an after-school string program taught by ASTA chapter members. His special interest in teaching include understanding and experiencing how the parts of technique fit into the whole of playing the cello and music making.

Dr. Fiste's teaching experience is broad and diverse. Although he teaches at the University level, he has been teaching younger and beginning students of all ages for many years. His first private student was an adult beginner in 1986 during his undergraduate years at the University of Illinois and he has been teaching cello to pre-college students every since. His teaching experience also includes being a middle and high school orchestra director in New Mexico in the early 1990s. 

Dr. Fiste was a prizewinner in the Rolland String Competition, Cello Society Competition, the University of Illinois Undergraduate Concerto Competition, and the University of Illinois Graduate Concerto Competition. He was also a member of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra in Providence, RI.

Dr. Fiste earned his B.M. at the University of Illinois (C-U), his M.M. from the University of Notre Dame, and his D.M.A. from the University of Illinois (C-U) where he studied with Karen Buranskas and Laurien Laufman. He has also participated in master classes with Janos Starker and Fritz Magg. Growing up in Milwaukee, he studied with Kathleen Lester of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and participated in string quartet camps held by the Fine Arts Quartet.