Cellist Chas Barnard is an active performer, music educator and entrepreneur based in the Hudson Valley, NY. For the 2020-21 school year, Chas was awarded a full-scholarship to study with Professor Matthew Zalkind at University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music where he earned a performance certificate. A 2020 graduate of University of Colorado, Boulder, he was a three-year teaching assistant to Professor David Requiro and a Lecturer in CU's Division of Continuing Education. Chas has attended numerous prestigious music festivals in recent years including Music Academy of the West, National Repertory Orchestra, Icicle Creek Chamber Music Institute, and the International Summer Academy at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. In summer 2020, Chas won the London Symphony Orchestra Keston Max Auditions, which includes an April 2021 London residency performing with the orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle.

Prior to his graduate studies at CU, Chas attended the University of Oregon on a full scholarship graduating cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in cello performance. At graduation, Chas was awarded Outstanding Undergraduate Performer in Strings by the UO School of Music & Dance faculty. During his time at University of Oregon, Chas’s cello teacher was Professor Steven Pologe. In 2013-14, Chas received a Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) Scholarship to study with Professor Claudio Bohórquez at the Staatlichen Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart, Germany. He also studied with Professor Bohórquez during the summer at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. In addition to study with his primary teachers, Chas has participated in masterclasses and lessons including with Efe Baltacigil, David Geber, Rebecca Gilliver, Lynn Harrell, Tim Hugh, Mark Kosower, Alan Stepanksy, Alisa Weilerstein, Meta Weiss, and Alice Yoo. As a concerto soloist, Chas has appeared with the Eugene Symphony Orchestra, Rogue Valley Symphony, Youth Symphony of Southern Oregon and the Marrowstone Summer Festival Chamber Orchestra in Bellingham, Washington. He has also performed solo Bach as part of a young artist recital in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. Currently, Chas is a regular member of the Boulder Philharmonic and co-founder of the Something’s Happening Ensemble (sohap).

A devoted teacher, Chas has served on the faculties of the Greater Boulder Youth Orchestra, University of Oregon Community Music Institute, the UO High School Orchestra Camp and the Chamber Music Camp of Portland. Chas also received Suzuki Teacher Training and completed coursework in pedagogy at both the University of Oregon and the Musikhochschule Stuttgart. Chas maintains a private studio online and in-person in Broomfield, Colorado, and teaches at Dana V Music.

Originally from Dayton, Ohio and later Ashland, Oregon, Chas started cello in his public-school music program in fourth grade. His early musical mentors were Peter Thomas, Dr. Mark Hofeldt, Thomas Stauffer, Cynthia Stauffer, Dr. Martin Majkut and his father.