Ralph Kirshbaum 

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The distinguished career of Texas-born cellist Ralph Kirshbaum encompasses the worlds of solo performance, chamber music, recording and pedagogy and places him in the highest echelon of today’s cellists. He enjoys the affection and respect not only of audiences worldwide, but also of his many eminent colleagues and students. "Ralph Kirshbaum has wonderful tone, utter technical reliability and the imagination to make the music feel both spontaneous and well planned,” opined the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Ralph Kirshbaum has appeared with many of the world’s great orchestras, including the Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, BBC and London Symphonies, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Zurich Tonhalle, Orchestre de Paris and Israel Philharmonic. He has collaborated with many of the great conductors of the time such as Herbert Blomstedt, Semyon Bychkov, Christoph von Dohnányi, Andrew Davis, the late Sir Colin Davis, James Levine, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Sir Antonio Pappano, André Previn, Sir Simon Rattle, Leonard Slatkin and the late Sir Georg Solti. Ralph Kirshbaum has appeared frequently at such prominent international festivals as Edinburgh, Bath, Verbier, Lucerne,  Aspen, La Jolla, Santa Fe, Music@Menlo, Ravinia and New York’s Mostly Mozart.

Having enjoyed a thirty-year collaboration with pianist Peter Frankl and violinist Gyorgy Pauk, he has in recent years appeared frequently with Pinchas Zukerman, Robert McDuffie, Lawrence Dutton, Peter Jablonski and Shai Wosner. Other recent collaborators have included Leif Ove Andsnes, Joshua Bell, Yefim Bronfman, Midori, Lang Lang, Vadim Repin, Joseph Swensen, Pepe Romero, and the Emerson and Takács String Quartets.  Bach forms an important part of Mr. Kirshbaum’s musical activities; Ralph Kirshbaum has performed the complete cycle of Bach Cello Suites in London’s Wigmore Hall, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, and in Sydney, Edinburgh, Lyon and San Francisco. He has also made a critically acclaimed recording of the solo Bach Suites for EMI/Virgin Classics.

kirshbaumassociates.com

 

Tom Landschoot

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Mr. Landschoot’s solo career solo career started after taking a top prize at the International Cello Competition ‘Jeunesse Musicales’ in 1995 in Bucharest, Romania. He has performed with the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Frankfurt Chamber Orchestra, Tempe Symphony,  Prima la Musica, the Symphony of the Southwest, Shieh Chien Symphony Orchestra, Scottsdale Philharmonic, Flemish Symphony Orchestra, Kaohsiung City Symphony, Loja Symphony Orchestra in Ecuador and the Orchestra of the United States Army Band and has appeared at Barge Music, Park City, Santa Barbara, Mammoth Lakes, Eureka, Utah, Red Rock, Park City, Manchester, Fresno, Madeline Island, Waterloo, Killington and Texas Music Festivals. His recordings are available on Summit, Organic, Kokopelli, ArchiMusic and Centaur Records.

Since 2013, he is a member of the Rossetti Quartet.  He has also performed with the Takacs, Dover and Arianna Quartets and members of the Cleveland, Vermeer, Tokyo, and Orion Quartets. Past collaborations include Lynn Harrell, Peter Wiley, Gilbert Kalich, Cho-Liang Lin, Martin Beaver and Martin Katz. An avid promoter of music of our time, he has commissioned and premiered over 20 new works for cello, including a concerto by Dirk Brosse. Resent engagements included several concerts with the Symphony Orchestra of Flanders with a new concerto of Belgian composer Frank Nuyts.

Tom Landschoot has been involved in interdisciplinary public service projects through his music, such as raising funds and awareness for the need of building an orphanage and hospital in Tamil Nadu, India. As part of this humanitarian project, Landschoot was featured in a documentary film of a cellist performing across India, integrating photography, culinary, journalism and original music compositions.

Praised for his expressive, virtuoso and poetic music making, Belgian cellist Mr. Landschootenjoys an international career as a concert and recording artist and pedagogue. He has toured North America, Europe, South America and Asia and has appeared on national radio and television worldwide.

tomlandschoot.com

 

Amit Peled

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Amit Peled (born 1973) is an Israeli-American cellist and virtuoso. He plays Pablo Casals's 1733 Matteo Gofriller cello. Prior to Casals's cello, Peled played a 1689 Andrea Guarneri cello.

Amit Peled's two critically acclaimed CDs “The Jewish Soul” and “Cellobration” were released under the Centaur Records label. His third CD with Centaur Records "Reflections" was released in September 2012.

At 6'5" tall, Peled started life as a basketball player and was called "larger than life" when he enveloped his Guarneri cello and "Jacqueline du Pré in a farmer's body."Peled often surprises audiences with the ways he breaks down barriers between performers and the public, making classical music more accessible to wider audiences through explanations, jokes, and even with a basketball game challenge.

Peled was a student of Bernard Greenhouse and is now a sought-after pedagogue of cello at Peabody Institute and when hired, was the youngest professor at a top musical institution.

amitpeled.com/biography

 

 

Mitch Maxwell

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A native of Abilene, Texas, Mr. Maxwell is currently Principal Cellist with the Dallas Opera Orchestra. A long-time student of the late Lev Aronson, Mr. Maxwell is an active chamber music performer in the Dallas area and is one of the founding members of the Trinity Chamber Players.

Mr. Maxwell was a faculty member and the Assistant Principal Cellist in the Eastern Philharmonic Orchestra at North Carolina's Eastern Music Festival. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of North Texas and a Master of Music degree from Southern Methodist University.

www.allmusic.com/artist/mitch-maxwell

 

Christopher Adkins

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Christopher Adkins joined the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in 1987 and serves as the DSO’s principal cellist and Fannie & Stephen S. Kahn Chair. The Dallas Morning News praised Adkins’ performance in a review of a recent DSO concert, saying “The Haydn was a special treat, showing off four of the orchestra’s finest musicians. Violinist Nathan Olson, cellist Christopher Adkins, oboist Erin Hannigan and bassoonist Wilfred Roberts played nimbly and elegantly.” Adkins received his musical training at the University of North Texas and at Yale University.

During his tenure at Yale, Adkins held the position of principal cellist with the New Haven Symphony. He has also held positions with the Milwaukee and Denver symphonies. Adkins joined the SMU Meadows music faculty in 1988 and teaches repertoire and studio classes to undergraduate and graduate cello students.

https://www.smu.edu/Meadows/AreasOfStudy/Music/Faculty/AdkinsChristopher

 

John Sharp

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Principal Cello, Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The Eloise W. Martin Chair

John Sharp was appointed principal cello of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the 1986–87 season by Sir Georg Solti. He was, at 27, among the youngest players ever in a CSO principal chair. Prior to his Chicago appointment, Sharp was a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and principal cello of the Cincinnati Symphony (1983–1986) and the New York String Orchestra under Alexander Schneider.


John Sharp was appointed principal cello of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the 1986–87 season by Sir Georg Solti. He was, at 27, among the youngest players ever in a CSO principal chair. Prior to his Chicago appointment, Sharp was a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and principal cello of the Cincinnati Symphony (1983–1986) and the New York String Orchestra under Alexander Schneider.

John Sharp has been a featured soloist for the CSO’s recording of Strauss’s Don Quixote, in Beethoven’s TripleConcerto with Itzhak Perlman and Daniel Barenboim, and in Britten’s Symphony for Cello and Orchestra under Mstislav Rostropovich.

He has performed in chamber music concerts across the nation, including appearances at the Marlboro Music Festival and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

A native of Waco, Texas, John Sharp began to play cello in school at the age of 10 and took his first private lessons at thirteen with Lev Aronson. Following a year at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, he enrolled at the Juilliard School, where he earned a master’s degree. While there, he studied with Lynn Harrell and appeared as soloist twice with Juilliard orchestras, including the New York premiere of Rorem’s Remembering Tommy. In 1986, he won third prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

A professor of cello at Roosevelt University, John Sharp also coaches the cello section of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

He plays a rare cello made by Joseph Guarnerius in 1694.

https://www.johnliba.com/

 

Lynn Harrell

Lynn Harrell’s presence is felt throughout the musical world. A consummate soloist, chamber musician, recitalist, conductor and teacher, his work throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia has placed him in the highest echelon of today’s performing artists.

Mr. Harrell is a frequent guest of many leading orchestras including Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, and the National Symphony. In Europe he partners with the orchestras of London, Munich, Berlin, Tonhalle and Israel. He has also toured extensively to Australia and New Zealand as well as the Far East, including Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong. In the summer of 1999 Mr. Harrell was featured in a three-week “Lynn Harrell Cello Festival” with the Hong Kong Philharmonic.

An important part of Lynn Harrell’s life is summer music festivals, which include appearances at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, the Aspen and Grand Tetons festivals, and the Amelia Island Festival.

On April 7, 1994, Lynn Harrell appeared at the Vatican with the Royal Philharmonic in a concert dedicated to the memory of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. The audience for this historic event, which was the Vatican’s first official commemoration of the Holocaust, included Pope John Paul II and the Chief Rabbi of Rome. That year Mr. Harrell also appeared live at the Grammy Awards with Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman, performing an excerpt from their Grammy-nominated recording of the complete Beethoven String Trios (Angel/EMI).

Lynn Harrell’s experience as an educator is wide and varied. From 1985-93 he held the International Chair for Cello Studies at the Royal Academy in London. Concurrently, from 1988-92, he was Artistic Director of the orchestra, chamber music and conductor training program at the L.A. Philharmonic Institute. In 1993, he became head of the Royal Academy in London, a post he held through 1995. He has also given master classes at the Verbier and Aspen festivals and in major metropolitan areas throughout the world. Since the start of the 2002-03 academic year, Mr. Harrell has taught cello at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.

Lynn Harrell was born in New York to musician parents. He began his musical studies in Dallas and proceeded to the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the first Avery Fisher Award.

In June, 2010 along with his wife, violinist Helen Nightengale, he founded the HEARTbeats Foundation, a 501(c) charity. Based in Los Angeles, the HEARTbeats Foundation strives to help children in need harness the power of music to better cope with, and recover from, the extreme challenges of poverty and conflict, in hope of creating a more peaceful, sustainable world for generations to come. Mr. Harrell serves as a board officer and Artist Ambassador, a capacity that allows him to work directly with children in in need.

In 2017, a documentary feature film about Lynn’s 60-year journey in music premiered at the Lev Aronson Cello Festival in Dallas. The film “Lynn Harrell: A Cellist’s Life” was directed and produced by Los Angeles Emmy Award winning storyteller Ty Kim. It features a supporting cast and fresh interviews with Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Oscar winning composers John Williams and André Previn, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Yefim Bronfman and others. Mr. Harrell was also honored at the Music Academy of the west in Santa Barbara with a special screening of the film.

Mr. Harrell makes his home in Santa Monica, CA

lynnharrell.com

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