Cellist Jeffrey Noel Lastrapes has appeared throughout the United States, Europe, and South America as a soloist, chamber musician, recitalist, and teacher. He has performed as soloist with the Monroe, Baton Rouge and Midland-Odessa symphony orchestras, the Ibex Chamber Orchestra of New York, the Lower Marion Symphony of Philadelphia, and the Festival Orchestra in Vina del Mar, Chile. Appearances at festivals include the Evian Festival in France, the Bellingham Festival, Sevenars Festival, the OK Mozart Festival, the National Cello Congress in Phoenix, Mid-Atlantic Chamber Music Society, Interlochen Center for the Arts, and twice at the Gregor Piatigorsky Seminar at the University of Southern California. Mr. Lastrapes has also performed frequently on radio and television including broadcasts over Radio France, WFMT - Chicago, National Public Radio, National Television and Radio of Chile, and three live recitals on WFLN of Philadelphia. In April of 2009, Mr. Lastrapes made his critically acclaimed New York debut at Merkin Concert Hall.
"An excellent cellist with consummate technical mastery, Lastrapes is a seasoned performer whose strong, outgoing personality lets him shape the music on a big canvas with bold colors and contours. His pacing is balanced, his phrasing elegant, with spontaneous, personal expressiveness, he draws the audience in from first note to last." - Edith Eisler, New York Concert Review
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After earning his bachelor of music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he studied with Orlando Cole, he was awarded a full scholarship to the Juilliard School where he received the Master of Music degree studying with Harvey Shapiro. He has had master classes with cellists Mistislav Rostropovich, Paul Tortelier, Joel Krosnik, Yo Yo Ma, and Lynn Harrell.

In 1991, Mr. Lastrapes represented the United States at the International Competition for Violoncello in Chile and won two of the four major prizes. In 1998 he received the Award for Outstanding Achievement from Lighthouse International (New York).

Positions held include principal cello with the Haddonfield Symphony in New Jersey, the Midland-Odessa Symphony in Texas, and the Quartz Mountain Music Festival Chamber Orchestra. He has served on the faculties at the Collegiate School in New York City and Oklahoma State University. Currently he is Assistant Professor of Cello at Texas Tech University, Associate Principal Cellist with the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, and cellist with the Quartet-a-tete Piano Quartet, of which he is a founding member. He has been a member of the Cello and Chamber music faculty at the Interlochen Center for the Arts since 1996.

Mr. Lastrapes has recorded for New World Records and West Virginia University Press. His recording of sonatas by Rachmaninoff and Chopin on Centaur Records is due to be released in the spring of 2010.

Mr. Lastrapes performs on a Francesco Ruggieri cello dated 1684 and a Paul Schuback cello dated 1987.