At age 2 Miriam Liske-Doorandish politely demanded her first cello and began lessons with her mother, Lisa Liske-Doorandish. She has since studied with Jonathan Kramer, Hans Jensen, Bartholomew LaFollette (BMus studies at the Royal College of Music), Amir Eldan (BA and AD at Oberlin Conservatory) and Paul Watkins (MM and MMA at the Yale School of Music).

Raised in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, Miriam is motivated by a love of collaboration which has led her into traditional chamber settings as well as traditional fiddling sessions. As cellist of the exploratory ensemble Trio Ondata, Miriam is a recipient of the gold and audience prizes at the 2023 Yellow Springs Chamber Competition. The trio also won silver medal and the inaugural Horszowski Prize at The Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition (‘22), and were winners of the 2022 Yale School of Music Chamber Competition. Trio Ondata recently completed residencies at the Mimir Chamber Festival (Texas) and Avaloch Farm Music Institute (New Hampshire), and will be returning to Avaloch again this summer.

Miriam is passionate about music up to and beyond the edges of the classical repertoire, delving into baroque and contemporary music during her studies in London and Ohio and continuing more recently with Yale's Baroque Ensemble and student collective Versicolor New Music. Drawing on folk music from the British Isles, Scandinavia and Appalachia, Miriam's longstanding partnership with fiddler Adam Work has led to travels in Europe and performances on the East and West Coasts of the US under the name Turtle Crossing.

In the traditional classical realm, Miriam has appeared at festivals such as Norfolk New Music, IMS Prussia Cove, Kneisel Hall, Four Seasons Winter Workshop, the Next Festival of Emerging Artists, Orford Music, Methow Valley Chamber Festival, Musique à Marsac, and Bowdoin International Music Festival, and has had the honor of working with members of the Juilliard, Emerson, Brentano, Kronos, Orion, Cavani, St. Lawrence, Aizuri, Doric, Pacifica, Calder, Thalea and Chiaroscuro quartets.

This spring Miriam looks forward to recitals in the Northeast with Trio Ondata, upcoming commission projects, performances with baroque ensemble and choir around Connecticut and a recording project with Yvette Young and the Next Festival Chamber Orchestra. In May of 2024 she will collaborate with pianist/conductor Lisa Moore and the Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance Company on a production of Martin Bresnick’s Tales of Hopper, premiering Bresnick’s new chamber work The Winter’s Tale at New York’s DiMenna Center.

Miriam has been recognized for her arts leadership in recent years, in particular receiving support from The Secular Society and Oberlin’s Flint Initiative Grant for her work as a founder and co-director of the Cello Springs Festival, a community based, cross-genre education and performance project active in Yellow Springs, OH from 2015-2019.

Miriam is currently based in New Haven, CT where she plays with Trio Ondata, the Havenwood Quartet and Versicolor New Music. A dedicated educator and former teacher for New Haven’s Music in Schools Initiative, she now maintains a private cello studio and teaches at the Stamford Music and Arts Academy. Parallel to her performing and teaching life, Miriam is committed to arts activism and community organizing, institutional accountability, baking extravagant desserts and exploring the outside world whenever possible. She plays an unusual willow-back Rocca model cello (2019) by Maryland-based luthier Howard Needham.