A native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, cellist David Bjella has a multi-faceted career as a teacher, chamber musician, orchestral player, and soloist. He is Professor of Cello at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, member of the critically acclaimed IRIS Orchestra in Tennessee, taught and performed at the Chigiana Academia Musicale festival in Siena, Italy, faculty member for the Cuerdas de Enlace festival in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, has served as a cello mentor at the Hot Springs Festival in Arkansas, performed with the Orlando Chamber Soloists in the Black Hills region of South Dakota, and was a featured clinician and soloist at the Beaumaris Festival in Wales. In December of 2016, Bjella served as Principal Cellist of the Orquesta Virtuosi De Pernambuco which performed in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile.