Cellist Zuill Bailey, in town for a pair of concerts with the Honolulu Symphony this weekend, remembers sage advice someone gave him years ago: "If you find something you love to do, and find a way to survive doing it, you'll never work a day in your life."

That is, work can be fun.

"Nothing else I know makes me this happy," said Bailey, 35, chatting last week from Edmonton, Alberta. "I've never seen the cello, or playing music, as something forced on me; it's the most natural thing for me.

"I started at age 4, with simple expression, something pure. From that day forward, it's been cello. At age 11, I knew I wanted to play it but I didn't know where the path was going to take me. I saw life differently, playing cello all day long."

Zuill (pronounced "zool") is a Scots-Irish name that was his family's surname several generations ago. Because the family produced mostly girls, Zuill was flagged as a middle name, then ramped up as the family name to keep it alive, and then passed on to later generations.

Bailey comes from a musical family. "My mom is a pianist, and she secretly would have loved me to play piano, but I had no connection to it," he said. His father has a doctorate in music and education, and his sister plays violin.

Bailey literally ran into a cello career. "It really happened that way — and it was scary at the time — but you might say I started with cello with a bang." He was at an orchestra concert as a child, running as kids do down a hallway after the show, when he crashed into and broke a cello. It was the defining moment.

"There is something about the cello I love — the physicality, wrapping my arms around it, enveloping it. I remember that feeling. And I remember while growing up — when I wasn't playing cello, I wanted to play, because of the feeling it brought. My parents actually had to stop me from practicing, so it's not like I was forced to practice. The way to discipline me (as a kid) was to take away my cello."

Bailey has a storied past, blessed with a connection (when he was a youth) with Mstislav Rostropovich, the Russian cellist and conductor, in the Washington, D.C., area not far from Virginia, where the family lived. It was in the 1970s, when Rostropovich was music director for the National Symphony Orchestra.

"It's the strangest thing to explain; I never traveled anywhere, and the only person I heard playing the cello was our local cellist, Rostropovich," Bailey said. "My parents would take me to concerts, rehearsals, and I see this guy playing, and the audience would go crazy. He was coaching me in D.C.; my entire childhood was in the storm of what he created. His influence really changed the dynamics of the region. It wasn't till I was in my late teens, when I went to summer camps and festivals, that I realized how influential he was. I really thought what he did was par for the course."

Eleven years ago, Bailey acquired his prized Matteo Gofriller cello, made by the Venetian craftsman in 1693, which he found and heard in a violin shop in New York. "I've always dreamed about the sound of this cello," he said. "It's incredibly unique and specially large, with an earthy sound. It's got all the nuances ... and it's really earthbound. It's rough, it's gruff, it's gorgeous and it's robust. It's like a tree with dense bark, with roots sticking out. Knobby. It also has a (carved) rosette on the top. And I did everything I could to get it."

The instrument formerly was owned by Mischa Schneider of the Budapest Quartet.

And it sits right next to Bailey in the plane whenever he travels.

"His ticket says 'Cello Bailey,' but because he's not human, he doesn't accrue frequent-flier miles," cellist Bailey said. "So I ask for extra peanuts, extra Coke."

Bailey grew up in northern Virginia and now lives with his wife and family in El Paso, Texas, where he has been artistic director of El Paso Pro Musica, a chamber-music organization, and helps develop the classical scene with a schedule of performing artists who participate in an outreach program. Bailey also is professor of cello at the University of Texas-El Paso.

He is a widely known cellist, and has frequented concert halls from Chicago to Santa Barbara, from Phoenix to Toronto, from Israel to China, from Jordan to Mexico. His appearance with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra is his Island debut.

"I flew through Hawai'i 10, 11 years ago, when I was asked to be a guest soloist on the Crystal Cruise — it was me and Victor Borge. I remember thinking, I should stay here (Honolulu), because it wasn't going to get any better — but the cruise moved to Fiji."

He has matinee-idol looks, and could easily pass for an actor instead of a musician. And he and his cello wound up in HBO's "Oz" series, in which he played a prisoner named Eugene Dobbins in three episodes between 1997 and 2003.

"The role actually happened because I was a cellist," Bailey said. "When putting the show together, the producer wanted to surround the main corps (of prisoners) with other people representing other fields — a lawyer, a basketball player. I had the opportunity to show the cello and play the music in a setting of people who aren't frequenting concert halls, so for me, it was the ultimate outreach — to bring my music to those who don't have access."

Bailey thrives on the mounting of a concert. "In a general sense, it's all about the personal connections," he said. "I like the exploration of the music and the people (orchestra members) who work together to create it. I come with my baggage, my inspiration, my study, the experience I've had; I meet the conductor and orchestra, and they bring theirs.

"I don't know how it's all going to come out, because the hall and the environment are variables, too. But I look toward that moment; I learn so much about myself and others within that moment. That's the greatness of music — how it all connects and ties together. It's the ultimate communication."

Reach Wayne Harada at wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com.