John Eitzen, cello

Always interested in “building a better mousetrap” by finding novel solutions to problems, SaddleRider.com founder John Haines-Eitzen has been a tinkerer from an early age. Prior to becoming a professional cellist, he spent countless hours working on bicycles (racing at a Velodrome near his home in rural Pennsylvania) and other hobbies where his inventive curiosity developed into his current interest in stringed instrument components. Currently, he is a Senior Lecturer and Artist-in-Residence at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. and a part-year resident of Portal, Ariz., where he and his family maintain a 100% solar-powered off-grid house in the Chiricahua mountains a few dozen miles from Mexico.

Prior to joining the Cornell faculty, John was a member of The Philadelphia Orchestra for a decade after finishing his cello studies with Janos Starker. In Arizona, he designed and helped to install his home’s solar power system where he manufactured prototypes for his first patent using a 100 percent sun-powered machine shop. This patent, along with other stringed instrument innovations, led to his founding Saddle Rider Music, LLC, a rapidly growing musical instrument component design and manufacturing company with clients on four continents. John maintains an active performing and recording schedule both individually and as a member of the Sierra Duo with pianist Matthew Bengtson, Assistant Professor of Piano Literature at the University of Michigan School of Music.