An award winning cellist, Carol Ou is known for her “fiery, marvelous," "meltingly melodic outpourings” (Boston Globe) and her “wonderfully pure cello tone and incisive technique.” (The Strad) A founding member of Trio Flamecrest, Carol was a member of the Carpe Diem String Quartet and a longtime duo partner of legendary violinist James Buswell. Her solo and chamber music concerts have taken her to prestigious concert venues across the globe, including Carnegie Weill Hall, Jordan Hall, National Gallery of Art, Gardner Museum, National Concert Hall in Kiev, and the National Concert Hall of Taipei.

At ease with the diverse musical styles of the last five centuries, Ms. Ou’s creative programming balances traditional European masterworks with more contemporary and eclectic ones. She has recorded three of the most beloved cello concerti by Haydn, Tchaikovsky, and Elgar, and premiered Hsiao Tyzen's Cello Concerto in Taipei, Taiwan. Along with Hsiao, American composers Richard Toensing and Daniel Pinkham, have dedicated works to her. Recent new music performances have featured collaborations with crossover artists on mandolin, banjo, accordion, didgeridoo, erhu, pipa, and the Persian santoor. 

As a prize-winning recording artist, Carol's discography includes solo and chamber music discs issued by Chi-Mei, Naxos, CRI, MSR, and Albany Records, much of them available on Spotify. Among her many recordings with the Carpe Diem String Quartet are of Sergei Taneyev’s String Quartets (Vol. 4 & 5) on Naxos, and Reza Vali's “The Book of Calligraphy" issued by Albany Records. Her Naxos recording of Walter Piston's Chamber Music won the 2001 Chamber Music America's Best Chamber Music CD award and her recording of Jeff Midkiff’s “Music for Mandolin & String Quartet” won the 2018 Global Music Awards gold medal.

A graduate of Yale University, Ms. Ou received her BA magna cum laude from Yale College and her master's and doctorate in music performance from the Yale School of Music. A devoted and passionate teacher, Carol mentors inquisitive students of all ages at New England Conservatory of Music and has taught cello students at Yale, MIT, and NYU. Outside of her regular teaching, Carol serves as the Director of the Music for Peace concert series in Cambridge, MA and travels internationally for cello and chamber music master classes on five continents, most recently in Hong Kong, Turkey, and Italy.