Jacqueline Pegis joined the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra in 2014, and in her junior year was appointed the Principal position of the cello section. Previously, Pegis was associate principal of the Cincinnati Junior strings orchestra and the CHCA Orchestra, as well as principal of the Wyoming Vision for the Arts Academy Orchestra.  In addition, Pegis has taken part in many music camps including the Interlochen Arts Academy, Green Mountain chamber music festival, Encore Festival, Heifetz International Music Institute, Suzuki workshops, and Cincinnati Young Artists cello and chamber music festivals which are directed by her former teacher Alan Rafferty.

 

Previously, Pegis has been awarded first place in the senior division of the Cincinnati Young Artists concerto competition twice, along with an honorable mention in the MTNA and Dayton annual concerto competitions, a finalist and overall third-place award in the Louisville concerto competition, and a semi-finalist award in the overture awards. She has appeared as a soloist playing the first movement of the Elgar Cello Concerto in E Minor with the Louisville Symphony Orchestra on six concerts in 2016, as well as one of 6 soloists chosen to play Vivaldi Two Cello Concerto with the Dayton Philharmonic. Pegis has also appeared in Master Classes for cellist Alisa Weilerstein, Hans Jorgen Jensen, Mihai Tetel, David Ying, and Richard Aaron, and will be attending the Heifetz International Music Institute in the summer of 2016. Pegis currently studies under professor Ilya Finkelshteyn. 

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Pegis will be performing Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and CSYO in 2017 as a prize for winning the annual CSYO Concerto Competition.  

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Pegis will begin studying Cello Performance at the Jacob's School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana under Professor Eric Kim in the fall of 2017.