18-year-old New York City-based cellist and pianist, Philip Thompson, started studying music at a very young age as part of his homeschool curriculum. He currently studies cello with Yehuda Hanani and Leo Singer and is a long-time student of Ronn Yedidia at The New York Piano Academy. He is the Principal Cellist of the New York Youth Symphony Orchestra, a Robert L. Poster Apprentice Conductor under Andrew Kim, and a member of the Langston Piano Quartet. Philip was the Principal Cellist for the New York Philharmonic Festival Youth Orchestra under Gustavo Dudamel. He is a member of the student-run Westside Chamber Players, has performed with Second Ending Ensemble, and he has been a featured soloist at Close Encounters with Music and with the Weill Cornell Music and Medicine Orchestra. He has been a summer participant at the High Peaks Music Festival, Boston University Tanglewood Institute String Quartet and Piano programs, and will be attending Summerfest at Kaufman Music Center. Philip has won numerous competitions, plays often on various well-known NYC stages, and will be attending The Juilliard School this fall in the shared studio of Zvi Plesser and Zlatomir Fung.