The Akron Symphony Orchestra will open the 2017-18 season on Sept. 23 with a concert featuring guest cellist Tony Rymer performing Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1.

Rymer has performed major concerti to critical acclaim with the Atlanta Symphony, Boston Pops, Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, and Pittsburgh Symphony, among others. He was the Second Prize Winner in the 2014 Enescu Competition, won first prize of the 2009 Sphinx Competition Senior Division and took third place in the 2009 Stulberg International String Competition.

Video: Meet Tony Rymer

A native of Boston, Tony began playing cello at age five, attended the Walnut Hill Arts School, was a Project STEP scholarship student from 1996-2007, and was awarded the prestigious Kravitz scholarship in 2007. One of the first recipients of the Jack Kent Cooke Award on the NPR national radio show From the Top, he has also been heard as soloist on WGBH Boston, WCLV Cleveland, and NPR’s Performance Today.

An avid chamber musician, Tony has collaborated in concert with artists such as violinists Ani Kavafian, Miriam Fried, Midori and Itzhak Perlman; violists Kim Kashkashian and Barbara Westphal; and cellist Paul Katz. Tony is a regular guest at chamber music festivals including the Ravinia Steans Institute, the Marlboro Music Festival, and Krzyzowa Music.

Tony has played privately for Yo-Yo Ma and performed in master classes for Anner Bylsma, Steven Isserlis and Pieter Wispelwey. He studied at the New England Conservatory with Paul Katz and Laurence Lesser while holding the Laurence Lesser Presidential Scholarship. Tony is currently a Masters student of Frans Helmerson at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik in Berlin.

Tony plays a cello on loan from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben made by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume (Paris).