Larissa Maestro is a Filipinx composer, cellist, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and arranger, based in Nashville, TN. Their work as an artist is broad and varied, a testament to a deep love of creation, expression, and collaboration.
Larissa was named “Instrumentalist of the Year” at the 2022 Americana Music Awards, and is the first cellist and first member of the Asian American Pacific Islander community to receive the award. Since arriving in Nashville in 2007, Larissa has co-founded a community orchestra (The Nashville Concerto Orchestra), joyfully screamed 90s covers to thousands of people with local supergroup My So-Called Band, started a Star Trek podcast (Into the Wormhole with Larissa and Lauren), created countless string arrangements for recordings and live performances, and appeared on stages big and small, in person and on network television.
The list of artists with whom they have recorded, collaborated, and/or performed is as diverse as their interests: Allison Russell, Hozier, Wendy & Lisa, Chaka Khan, Eminem, Tyler Childers, Margo Price, Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings, Mickey Guyton, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Jake Wesley Rogers, John Legend, H.E.R. & Daniel Caesar, Toni Braxton, Cam, Brandi Carlile, and more. They are currently writing and recording a solo pop/chamber music project called MZTZA.
As a composer, Larissa has used chamber music to express their rich inner world, relationship to their neurodivergence, and identity as a Filipinx-American. Their compositions have been performed by Julian Schwarz (cello), Patrick Dailey (countertenor), ALIAS Chamber Ensemble, Lockeland Strings, La Vie Quartet, The Nashville Concerto Orchestra, and members of the Nashville Symphony. They have been commissioned twice as a composer for the Nashville Ballet, and their second work for dance was featured in the ballet “Anthology” in February 2023. Recently, they provided original score and main title music for the Max docu-series “Justice USA”, which documented the stories of several people’s experience with the Nashville justice system.
Passionate about volunteerism & social activism, Larissa has organized many ambitious fundraisers for local, national, and international nonprofit organizations, including Youth Empowerment through Arts and Humanities, The Oasis Center of Nashville, Hurricane Haiyan Relief, and ACLU. In 2016, Larissa co-founded the Nashville Concerto Orchestra with Roger Wiesmeyer (formerly of the Nashville Symphony), a volunteer-based community orchestra that explores the vast concerto repertoire, and provides opportunities for soloists, conductors, composers, and musicians of all levels of experience. The NCO (which operates as part of the nonprofit Mozart in Nashville) brings classical music to the diverse communities of Nashville, and donates all concert proceeds to local charities. They sit on the advisory board of Jessi Zazu, Inc., a nonprofit organization founded to honor and memorialize the legacy of Jessi Zazu by continuing her work in the arts & humanities, social justice, and women's health.
Larissa studied the cello with contemporary cellist Dr. Sera Smolen, Christine Lowe-Diemecke at the Ithaca Talent Education School, and Grammy award-winning improvisational cellist Eugene Friesen at Berklee College of Music.
When Larissa’s father, a now retired university professor, began designing and building instruments, Larissa began to incorporate them into their arsenal. In his workshop, Cliff Scherer re-imagined the instruments of the Philippine Rondalla (banduria, octavina, laud), and created different permutations of the mandocello and ukulele. These sounds are now an integral part of their own band project, Poly. The band released an EP, "3 Songs by Poly" in 2012. Their full length album of adorable jazz/pop standard inspired songs about animals and old movie stars was released in March of 2016, and is called "Let's Have an Adventure!".