Yeemz

yeemz (Yi-Mei Templeman) is a cellist and singer-songwriter from Santa Monica, California. She currently lives in residence at the New England Conservatory in Boston, MA as a member of the internationally acclaimed piano trio, Trio Gaia. Cellist Yi-Mei Templeman creatively fuses genres, and rethinks typical presentation of classical music in order to welcome people of all backgrounds into her distinctly emotive and intimate storytelling. Yi-Mei hails from Santa Monica, California, but has brought her music to venues across Asia, South America, Canada, and the United States. She has spent past summers at the Perlman Music Program, Yale University's Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Yellow Barn’s Young Artists Program, Carnegie Hall’s Audience Engagement Institute, and the Tanglewood Institute, where she was principal cellist of the Young Artists Orchestra. She also toured Taiwan with the National Taiwan Youth Symphony and performed in the International Piatigorsky Festival. She studied privately with LA Phil's associate principal cellist, Ben Hong, for four years, and now studies with Laurence Lesser and Lluis Claret. In the fall of 2018, Yi-Mei founded Trio Gaia with violinist Grant Houston and pianist Andrew Barnwell. The trio is currently New England Conservatory's youngest ever graduate piano trio in residence, and recently won 1st prize at the 2022 WDAV Young Chamber Musicians Competition, as well as prizes in the 2022 Premio Trio di Trieste International Music Competition, 2021 Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition, and the 2019 Plowman National Chamber Music Competition. Outside of her work with Trio Gaia, Yi-Mei began experimenting with singing and playing her cello like a guitar in 2018, when she was unable to bring her ukelele to college with her.