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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. The trio is passionate about education, and has organized week-long education and performing residencies at the Panama Jazz Festival and the Virginia Arts Festival. The trio has worked extensively with chamber music mentors Vivian Weilerstein, Don Weilerstein, Kim Kashkashian, Merry Peckham, Yeesun Kim, Ayano Ninomiya, Mark Steinberg, and Itzhak Perlman, among many others. Their recent travels include international competitions in Osaka, Japan and Melbourne, Australia in the Summer of 2023.

Outside of her classical work with Trio Gaia, Yi-Mei is a recording musician and singer-songwriter, strumming her cello sideways like a guitar. She performed original songs and classical music alike at Joe's Pub at the Public Theater in NYC, opening for Ben Abraham. In 2021, she was selected to perform in an event at Little Island NYC curated by Sara Bareilles, Michelle Ndegeocello, and Broadway producer Tina Landau, which celebrated six up-and-coming female songwriters. As a recording musician, Yi-Mei's cello-playing has been featured on Sabrina Carpenter’s newest album, in collaborations with Adam Melchor, and on "Late Night with Seth Meyers" for pop artist Ashe. Lately, Yi-Mei has been voraciously working on songwriting, string arranging, and music production. You can find her growing collection of self-produced original music on all streaming services under the pseudonym "yeemz". Her fifth self-produced single, "Beau’s Old Bones" was recently released on streaming services. Yi-Mei also just finished scoring her first short film, “The Unreachable Star”, which premiered in Los Angeles in February of 2023.

An eager collaborator and contemporary music advocate, Yi-Mei has premiered solo cello works written for her by composers Emmett Mathison and Kyrie Mcintosh. In 2022, she performed a piece that she is particularly passionate about, “SEVEN” by Andrea Casarrubios, at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, as the single soloist selected for her class graduation ceremony. During the pandemic, Yi-Mei worked with composer and friend Nico Daglio Fine to record a solo cello piece for a virtual reality installation. She also started a series of co-writing adventures – “The Moonsong Project'' – with dear friend and frequent composing collaborator, Noga Cabo.

Yi-Mei teaches cello privately and as a teaching fellow of Boston Hope Music's partnership with Massachusetts General Hospital. She earned a B.M. from the New England Conservatory in 2022 with a minor in Cultural Studies. She is currently pursuing a G.D. and an M.M. in Chamber Music with Trio Gaia through NEC’s Professional Piano Trio Residency Program.

When not playing cello (sideways or vertically), you can find Yi-Mei baking cookies for friends, reading surrealist fiction, scouring Depop for colorful vintage clothes, solving Rubik’s Cubes, or practicing yoga.