Allison Yoshie Eldredge (also referred to as Allison Eldredge) is an American concert cellist, recording artist, and educator of Japanese and American parentage. She was born in New York City and raised partly in California. 

Early Life and Training

She began piano studies at age 3 with her mother, Yoshie Akimoto (a concert pianist who studied at Juilliard and came from Osaka, Japan). Surrounded by a family of pianists, she sought her own musical identity and switched to cello around age 9 (after briefly wanting to play violin; the store was out of violins, leaving a cello as the practical option). She fell in love with the instrument’s sound. 

Early teachers included Joan Lunde and Eleonore Schoenfeld in California. She continued with Harvey Shapiro and Yo-Yo Ma in New York. Additional teachers: Ardyth Alton, Channing Robbins, Felix Galimir (chamber music), Lewis Kaplan, Mstislav Rostropovich, and others. She studied at the Juilliard School (Pre-College and College).

As a child prodigy:

• Soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at age 12.
• First Prize in the national Bronislaw Kaper Award Competition; soloist with André Previn and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
• Soloist with the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta at age 15.
• White House performance (for President and Mrs. Reagan) by her early teens; also Kennedy Center and Constitution Hall appearances.  More