Jessica Wang

Biography

Jessica Wang is a New York City-based cellist who enjoys playing music of all genres, from musical theater to classical to pop/rock and beyond. With various ensembles and artists, she has performed at many distinguished venues including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, NJPAC, the Santa Barbara Bowl, the Naumburg Bandshell, the Prospect Park Bandshell, the Public Theater, the Town Hall, the Beacon Theatre, NBC Studios and Broadway.

Jessica is an avid lover of musical theater, both in the pit and in the audience. She was the cellist for the Broadway revival of Bob Fosse's Dancin' as well as for the first North American tour of An American in Paris. As a substitute on Broadway, she has played at Wicked, Jagged Little Pill, Almost Famous, Funny Girl, Camelot, Once Upon a One More Time and Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish (off-Broadway).

Jessica has held the cello chair in several off-Broadway shows, including The Gardens of Anuncia (Lincoln Center Theater, 2023), Between the Lines (Tony Kiser Theater, 2022), Notes From Now (59E59 Theaters, 2022), We're Only Alive for A Short Amount of Time by David Cale (Public Theater, 2019) and Pericles (Theatre for a New Audience, 2016). Additionally, she has played with the Radio City Christmas Spectacular orchestra as both a chairholder and as a substitute.

In the television world, Jessica has appeared in several episodes of the award-winning Amazon series Mozart in the Jungle, as well as on Saturday Night Live with musical guest, Shawn Mendes. She has also had the opportunity to perform with the legendary Smokey Robinson at the Beacon Theatre and with Jason Mraz with the NY Pops.

Jessica can be heard on a wide variety of albums and recordings, including several albums with the 8-Bit Big Band led by Tony and Grammy-winning orchestrator Charlie Rosen, the 2021 Grammy-winning world premiere album of Dame Ethel Smyth's The Prison performed with the Experiential Orchestra, the pop single Lady Like by Ingrid Andress released on Amazon Music, and Blake Allen's chart-topping musical theatre album The Shards of an Honor Code Junkie. She can also be heard on Perfume Genius's song Whole Life, which was recorded live at the iconic Electric Lady Studios. Musical theater albums Jessica has recorded on include the original cast albums of Between the Lines and The Gardens of Anuncia.

As a soloist, Jessica has performed the Lalo Cello Concerto with the High Mountain Symphony and Popper's Hungarian Rhapsody with the New Jersey Youth Orchestra. She has also been featured on National Public Radio’s From the Top as both a soloist as well as in collaboration with world-renowned violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. During past summers, Jessica has been a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, the Aspen Music Festival, the Music Academy of the West, the Bowdoin International Music Festival and the Mozarteum International Summer Academy in Salzburg, Austria.

Jessica holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Harvard College and a Master of Music in Cello Performance from The Juilliard School, where she was an Irene Diamond Graduate Fellowship Recipient student of Bonnie Hampton.