Matilda Petrela

After earning an Artists Diploma at the Academy of Arts in Tirana in her native country of Albania in 1995, Matilda was chosen from the France-USA Center International for the Performing Arts to debut with the 4th Annual Mostly Mozart in Napa Valley Concert in California. Matilda earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Instrumental Performance at the Hartt School of Music in West Hartford, Connecticut, where she studied under Steven Thomas. She studied under internationally respected musician Piero Farulli at the Academia Musicale Chigiana in Italy.

Matilda has been a cellist with the New Britain Symphony Orchestra since 1997 and with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra since 2001. She received the Best Musical Ensemble Award, representing Albania in the 1993 Balkan Festival in Delphi Greece.

Matilda was honored to play the Kosovo National Anthem at the Kosovo Proclamation of Independence ceremony in Hartford Connecticut in 2016. She continues to perform within Connecticut and in Europe.