Megan Chartier

Megan Chartier is “unafraid to display gutsy abandon,” as described by the South Florida Classical Review. She has performed throughout North America and Europe as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral cellist.

Chartier currently holds positions as core cellist of Ensemble for These Times, principal cellist of Opera San Luis Obispo and section cello in the Vallejo Symphony. Previous notable positions include core cellist of the Astralis Chamber Ensemble, principal cellist of the Miami Symphony Orchestra, and extra cello of San Antonio Symphony. In recent seasons, she has performed with ensembles including Symphony San Jose, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, Berkeley Symphony, Stockton Symphony, Modesto Symphony, One Found Sound in San Francisco and the Nu Deco Ensemble in Miami. In the fall of 2023, she joined the faculty of California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo as cello lecturer.

As a soloist, Chartier recently presented unaccompanied recitals as a guest artist at UC Davis and faculty artist at Cal Poly. She was named a semi-finalist in the PRISMA Concerto Competition in British Columbia, was a first-prize winner of the Ann Arbor Society of Musical Arts’ Young Artist Competition and a winner of the Miami Music Festival Concerto Competition conducted by Grzegorz Nowak of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Chartier is an active chamber musician and joined San Francisco's contemporary Ensemble for These Times in 2025 following several seasons as a guest artist. The ensemble will release their sixth album in 2026. This appointment follows her previous position as core cellist of the Astralis Chamber Ensemble, a dynamic ensemble with monthly tours around the United States. She was also a founding member of Miami-based string trio, the Wynwood Trio. Chartier’s other notable chamber collaborations have included multiple performances with the Amernet String Quartet, Andrés Cárdenes, Gary Levinson, Yuriy Bekker and work with Frank Almond, Brian Thornton, Christopher Adkins, Yegor Dyachkov and Yizhak Schotten. Chartier has studied with renowned teacher Marion Feldman at the Intensive Quartet Program at NYU, in addition to regular study with Howard Cass, Kathryn Votapek, Andrew Jennings, Katherine Collier and Christopher Harding.

Chartier holds a Bachelor of Music in performance from Eastern Michigan University and a Master of Music in performance from University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She enjoys supplementing her musical craft with visual art, integrating both passions through her art persona "Inkermezzo." This creative alias combines the words ink, her favored medium, and intermezzo, a short musical movement inserted between acts of a larger work. Searching for identity when performances halted in the early pandemic, Chartier embraced musical artwork; she was still a cellist, even without a stage. Her illustrations and designs focus on classical music education, awareness and activism through realistic portraiture and detailed anatomical works. Notable collaborations include Hilary Hahn, the DSCH Journal, CelloBello, the American Viola Society and Strings of Latin America.