Geoffrey Dean is a cellist, conductor, and composer with over thirty years of performing and teaching experience on both sides of the Atlantic. In addition to music performance degrees from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and the Indiana University School of Music, he earned a doctorate in philosophy of music at Sofia University. A founding music faculty member at the American University in Bulgaria, he has performed internationally as the cellist of the Ardenza Trio and the Dimov and Sofia Quartets. He has appeared as soloist with leading Bulgarian orchestras and was twice awarded the Crystal Lyre national prize for his contributions to Bulgarian musical culture.

 

Since returning to the United States in 2014, he has devoted himself to sharing his expertise with younger aspiring musicians, first at the American International School in Salt Lake City, and from 2018 as orchestra director at Parnassus Preparatory School in Minneapolis. At Parnassus the string program has grown significantly under his direction, and he credits his students as the inspiration for his continuing creativity, most recently as the composer of string orchestra works such as Apollonian Riffs.

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