Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival: Portrait of an Artist: John Popham, cello

Cellist John Popham made his WWCMF debut during the January 2026 Winter Festival. It was Tasting Music night, Beethoven’s Op. 59 No. 2. As the overly talkative Artistic Director mused about the character of the key of E minor, invoking the Brahms Cello Sonata of the same key, John gamely riffed, providing the opening melody of that piece without hesitation. In so doing, he more or less committed to being the subject of a future — now present! — PoA recital.

Long a New Yorker by way of Louisville, KY, John is a fairly recent transplant to the Pacific Northwest. In Fall 2025, he began his tenure as Professor of Cello and String Chamber Music at the University of Washington. Prior to his westward migration, he taught in the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program and served for three years as Juilliard’s Artistic Administrator for Community Engagement, where he mentored Juilliard teaching fellows; produced interactive, multidisciplinary educational programs; and curated the school’s Young People’s Concert series.