Dansby Appointed to Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Dansby graduated Oberlin College and Conservatory with a B.M. in Cello Performance under Darrett Adkins and a B.A. in Chemistry with minors in Sociology and Comparative American Studies.

He has also seen success outside of CSO. Dansby is a founding member of the Poiesis Quartet, which was the 2023 Grand Prize winner of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Having formed just eight months earlier during Oberlin Conservatory's Advanced String Quartet Seminar, Poiesis also received Fischoff’s Senior Strings Gold Medal and the Lift Every Voice prizes, as well as the Gold Medal and BIPOC Prize at the 2023 St. Paul String Quartet Competition. In May 2024, Poiesis joined the Concert Artists Guild roster for North American management as the winners of the Louis & Susan Meisel Competition. Poiesis is a queer ensemble that strives to embody accessibility in chamber music through interdisciplinary and multi-instrumental performances, educational outreach, and commissioning works by emerging artists.

Prior to his CSO appointment, Dansby served as an acting cellist in the Charlotte Symphony, associate principal cellist of the New York String Orchestra, and principal cellist of the Verbier Festival Orchestra. Originally from Charlotte, NC, Drew made his solo debut with the Charlotte Symphony at age 15.

As a double major at Oberlin, Dansby studied chemistry and conducted molecular dynamics and computational chemistry research and he was awarded the Norman C. Craig Chemistry Scholarship and inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honors society as a member of the junior class. Drew has also interned as an air quality analyst at the Charlotte branch of Civil and Environmental Consultants and conducted atmospheric chemistry research with Dr. Terry Miller at The Ohio State University.