Rushad Eggleston is a contemporary improvisational cellist

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

.

Eggleston, a graduate of Carmel High School

Carmel High School (Carmel, California)

Carmel High School is a school of 750 students and 50-plus faculty members, situated just outside the city of Carmel, California. Built in 1940, CHS is known for its lovely view of the Santa Lucia Mountains with a peek of Point Lobos and the Pacific Ocean...

 in Carmel, California, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, played the cello as a member of the Youth Music Monterey orchestra in Monterey Bay

Monterey Bay

Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean, along the central coast of California. The bay is south of San Francisco and San Jose, between the cities of Santa Cruz and Monterey....

. Later he attended the Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...

 in Boston, Massachusetts, after having won a full scholarship in a competition. There Eggleston studied cello with Associate Professor Eugene Friesen

Eugene Friesen

Eugene Friesen is an American cellist and composer.Friesen is a graduate of the Yale School of Music. He has been a member of the Paul Winter Consort since 1978, and performs with Howard Levy and Glen Velez as Trio Globo...

 and graduated in May 2003.

After releasing a small-press album called Nico and Rushad in 1999 (with fellow musician Nico Georis), Eggleston made his large-scale recording debut with his self-titled Compass Records release with Fiddlers 4 which was nominated for a 2002 Grammy, as well as with Darol Anger

Darol Anger

-Career:Darol Anger entered popular music at the age of 21 as a founding member of The David Grisman Quintet. Anger played fiddle to David Grisman's mandolin in The David Grisman Quintet's 1977 debut. He co-founded the Turtle Island String Quartet with David Balakrishnan in 1985 and performed,...

's Republic of Strings, bringing him to national prominence. Eggleston has toured extensively with Darol Anger's Republic of Strings, Fiddler's 4, and the alternative folk/bluegrass group he helped found, Crooked Still

Crooked Still

Crooked Still is an alternative bluegrass band consisting of vocalist Aoife O'Donovan, banjo player Dr. Gregory Liszt, bassist Corey DiMario, cellist Tristan Clarridge and fiddler Brittany Haas...

. Crooked Still released two CD with Eggleston, one in 2004 and the second in 2006. Eggleston also released a more experimental album named "Playhouse of the Universe

Playhouse of the Universe

Playhouse of the Universe is album by American folk-rock group Wild Band of Snee.Fronted by Rushad Eggleston, cellist of Tornado Rider and former member of Crooked Still, the album offers 11 compositions of this Grammy-nominated musician and brings us closer into his mythical world of "Snee"...

" July 10, 2006 with The Wild Band of Snee

Wild Band of Snee

Wild Band of Snee is a folk-rock American band, formed by cellist Rushad Eggleston in 2005. It also features Aoife O´Donovan, front-lady of progressive bluegrass band Crooked Still....

, as well as another of his goofier albums, Rushad Eggleston and The Butt Wizards. Eggleston left Crooked Still in November 2007.

Eggleston has been an instructor at Mark O'Connor

Mark O'Connor

Mark O'Connor is an American bluegrass, jazz, country and classical violinist fiddler, composer and music teacher. O'Connor's music is wide-ranging, critically acclaimed, and he has received numerous awards for both his playing and his composition...

's fiddle camps and conferences from 2001 to 2007.
He has also taught Cello at Maine Fiddle Camp at camp NEOFA.

Magnolia Festival

Tornado Rider

Eggleston now leads, produces, and tours nationally with band, Tornado Rider, based out of Oakland, CA. Members include Rushad Eggleston on electric cello and lead vocal, Graham Terry on electric bass and backup vocals, and Scott Manke on drums and backup vocals.

Tornado Rider is famous for playing at such distinguished venues as The Boom Boom Room in San Francisco, California, SpringFest

Springfest

Springfest is a common name for events occurring to celebrate the coming of Spring.*Spring Fest , popularly known as SF, is the annual social & cultural festival held at Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India during the month of January in the spring semester.*Springfest is a common name...

, Burning Man

Burning Man

Burning Man is a week-long annual event held in the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada, in the United States. The event starts on the Monday before the American Labor Day holiday, and ends on the holiday itself. It takes its name from the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy on Saturday evening...

, and Magnolia Festival.