William Skeen performs the Prelude from Bach’s Sixth Suite for Solo Cello, on a five-stringed baroque instrument.
Skeen will be performing Bach’s Sixth Suite, as well as Cello Suites no. 5 and 1, plus the Ciaconna from Britten’s Second Suite for Solo Cello for the Seattle Bach Festival on 10, 11 and 12 October 2025.
Skeen plays the Sixth Suite on an anonymous five-stringed cello built in Northern Italy in the late 17th century. It was converted back to its original five-stringed baroque setup by luthier Andrew Dipper in the 1980s.
He says, ’Upon receiving the instrument, he [Dipper] noticed that the pegbox had had ten pegholes that had been plugged, realigned, and reset to fit four pegs. In addition, the sound holes are unusually spaced much further apart than on a normal four-string cello, leaving extra width for the addition of a fifth string.’
Skeen is principal cellist of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Voices of Music and Seattle Bach Festival. He is a founding member of the New Esterházy Quartet, the Cantata Collective, and La Monica.
Skeen taught baroque cello and viola da gamba at the University of Southern California from 2000-2020. He has appeared as continuo cellist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and San Diego Opera. He has been highlighted as viola da gamba soloist multiple times with the Dallas Symphony, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Carmel Bach Festival, Oregon Bach Festival, American Bach Soloists, and the Orquesta Nacional de México.
Skeen has performed and recorded with Musica Pacifica, Smithsonian Chamber Players, and Philharmonia Chamber Players and the Whidbey Island Music Festival. He has served on the faculty of the American Bach Soloists Academy, the Berwick Academy at the Oregon Bach Festival, the San Francisco Early Music Society’s Baroque Workshop, and co-founded the SFEMS Classical Workshop.
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