Yi-Mei Templeman

yeemz (Yi-Mei Templeman) aims to creatively fuse genres in order to welcome people of all backgrounds into her distinctly intimate and emotive storytelling.

Yeemz is a cellist, singer-songwriter, and composer from Santa Monica, California. She is currently classical cellist in-residence at the New England Conservatory with her internationally acclaimed piano trio (and best friends), Trio Gaia. She has been writing songs on the piano from a young age, but only began experimenting with singing and playing her cello like a guitar in 2018, when she was unable to bring her ukelele to college with her.

Since then, yeemz has quickly established the roots of a uniquely multi-faceted career, performing around the world as a classical cellist, producing her own music, recording and arranging strings for other artists, scoring music for film, and teaching cello students of all ages.

Yeemz orchestrates her original songs with her own cello playing and draws songwriting inspiration from literature, indie-folk influences, and classical music alike. She has music out on all streaming platforms, and has been featured on multiple Spotify editorial playlists. She will soon release the first single from her debut album. The single, “TSA”, is inspired by yeemz’s real life experience leaving water in her bottle going through TSA and also by themes from Bell Hooks’ book, “All About Love”.