Annamarie Wellems

Cellist Annamarie Wellems has built a career marked by musical excellence and a passion for education. She has appeared with the Chicago, Detroit, Colorado and Charleston Symphony Orchestras, and served as principal cellist of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. Annamarie was a guest artist at the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, and has collaborated with artists such as Yura Lee, Jon Kimura Parker, Nikki Chooi, and the Miró Quartet. Her chamber ensembles have received national recognition, including gold medals at the M-Prize, Saint Paul String Quartet and ENKOR competitions, silver medal at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, and were featured on WFMT’s 98.7 Introductions broadcast.

Annamarie’s festival experiences include summers at the Sarasota, Heifetz, Bowdoin and Meadowmount music festivals. As a 2021 Colorado College fellow, Annamarie was featured on the PBS television series Now Hear This, performing Copland’s Appalachian Spring with members of The Cleveland Orchestra. She was twice an orchestral fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and School, where she served as assistant principal of the Aspen Chamber Symphony.

Annamarie returned to her Suzuki roots to complete her pedagogy and practicum training with Dr. Tanya Carey and Abbey Hansen, and is a registered teacher with the Suzuki Association of the Americas for all ten books. She has served on the faculty of institutions including The Cleveland School of the Arts, Cuyahoga Community College TOP, The People’s Music School, The Music Settlement, Civic Orchestra Mentorship Program, and the Contemporary Youth Orchestra. She maintains a private studio of all ages and stages—working with beginners, advanced pre-college students, and adult learners. Throughout her years of teaching, Annamarie has seen how access to music education is transformative, and aims to empower students at every stage of their musical and personal journey. She emphasizes curiosity, perseverance, and physical ease—elements that lay the groundwork for technical excellence and joyful life-long music making.

Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Annamarie received her early training at the Academy of the Music Institute of Chicago with Tanya Carey and Hans Jørgen Jensen. She earned her B.M. from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music under Desmond Hoebig and went on to complete her M.M. at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Dr. Melissa Kraut, where she was a member of the Advanced String Quartet Seminar.

Annamarie plays on a 1997 Garavaglia previously owned by renowned Hungarian-American cellist János Starker. She lives in Denver, Colorado, where she spends her days off hiking mountains and jumping in icy rivers.