About Justin

Hey there, I'm Justin! I've been teaching cello lessons to talented young students for more than a decade and playing the cello for about 30 years! I started teaching young cello players while I was in college and graduate school and I kept at it all the way through the completion of my doctorate at the University of Georgia. Since 2014, I've been teaching cello lessons in my home-studio in the north-Atlanta suburbs.

I've performed all over the world in string quartets and as a solo cello player, and I bring my experience as a performer to cello lessons. The crux of my teaching philosophy is my belief that there is no such thing as “natural talent;” that any student can learn to play the cello. I know from personal experience that the best reward for hard work is that exuberant feeling after an outstanding performance. My students perform at all different levels, and work hard to improve, week after week. They have achieved some awesome things! You can learn more about me by reading the fancy bio below or visiting my other website!

In my spare time, I enjoy running, DIY house projects, and homebrewing beer!

Check this formal biography:

Called “astounding,” (Boston Musical Intelligencer) and “a rising star,” (Bay Area Reporter) cellist Justin Dougherty maintains an active career as a chamber musician, educator, and advocate for contemporary music. He performs upwards of thirty concerts annually throughout the United States and abroad, appearing in recital, chamber music collaborations, and interdisciplinary projects that place new and underrepresented repertoire at the center of his work.

Widely recognized for his commitment to expanding the cello’s repertory, Mr. Dougherty has premiered nearly forty new works and commissioned more than two dozen compositions for solo cello and chamber ensembles. He has collaborated with composers such as David Rakowski, Gunther Schuller, Steven Stucky, Dominick DiOrio, and Emily Cooley, as well as members of Boston’s Fifth Floor Collective. Since 2010, he has presented more than 200 performances of his ongoing recital project Queering the Pitch, a multi-part exploration of music by LGBTQIA+ composers for solo cello and soprano–cello duo. The project has been heard widely across the United States, including repeat engagements at New York’s Carnegie Hall.

As a chamber musician, Mr. Dougherty has frequently collaborated with artists including cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Judith Gordon, and violinist William Pu. He is a member of the Counterpointe Duo, formed with soprano Meredith Mecum Bloomfield expressly to commission, develop, and perform repertory for the soprano–cello combination. As a string quartet cellist he has completed concert tours throughout the United States and Europe, and has performed with Chamber Cartel, a Georgia-based group dedicated to contemporary classical music. Orchestrally, he has performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and formerly served as principal cello of Symphony Orchestra Augusta (GA).

In parallel with his performing career, Mr. Dougherty is a sought-after teacher and lecturer. He maintains one of the largest independent private cello teaching studios in the southeast, and his students regularly earn principal positions in major youth orchestras, placements in All-State ensembles, and admission to leading conservatories, universities, and summer programs. He has presented residencies, mastery classes, lectures, and adjudications at colleges, universities, and school districts nationwide, including Messiah University and the University of South Florida.

Mr. Dougherty holds degrees from the Pennsylvania State University, University of Georgia, and The Boston Conservatory, where he was the assistant to his mentor, the renowned cellist Rhonda Rider. His other teachers include Kim Cook, Judith Eissenberg, Joel Krosnick, and Robert Nairn. 

Justin Dougherty is a lapsed vegetarian who lives with his family and works in metro-Atlanta. You can find him running along Atlanta’s rail-trails and greenways, homebrewing beer, and eating his way through all the incredible food and wine that the south has to offer.