The CelloBello Fund Drive is Here!
Dear CelloBello Friends, It’s that time of year again! We’re so excited that we got to kick off our yearly fund-drive yesterday with a special live-streamed masterclass with our founder Paul Katz (see it again here)! We are thrilled and proud of the projects and milestones we have achieved in 2017: unveiling our new and improved website, hitting over one million views on our YouTube channel, the success of our month-long Bach Celebration which included our first livestreamed performance from Amsterdam by Pieter Wispelwey (see it again here), not to mention our wide spread of CelloChats, blogs and masterclasses from coast to coast! Please stay tuned for a special announcement about our 2018 projects…. Our fund-drive is critical and important for us here at CelloBello. It’s your contributions, regardless of [...]
Yamaha Welcomes String Players Jacob Szekely, Mike Block and Charley Sabatino to the Yamaha Artist Family
INDIANAPOLIS (October 12, 2017) — Yamaha Artist Services is pleased to announce the addition of cellists Jacob Szekely and Mike Block and bassist Charley Sabatino to the Yamaha Artist family. All three are fulfilling their creative musical visions using Yamaha electric string instruments. Szekely, a cellist, is one of the most active and influential musicians in the creative string community in Los Angeles, which focuses on playing styles that involve improvisation. Block, a Juilliard graduate who lives in Boston, is a longtime member of Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble and is heavily into the electric cello for his compositional work. Sabatino, a seasoned jazz bassist, plays a diverse range of gigs and styles and is based in New York City. Both Szekely and Block play the Yamaha SVC-210sk Silent [...]
Welcome to CelloBello’s Back to School Week Celebration!
Hello CelloBello Fans! With school back in full swing, we're excited to officially kick off the fall season here at CelloBello! Stay tuned for a packed week of new and original CelloBello releases: Monday: an exclusive masterclass with Yo-Yo Ma on the Elgar Concerto, Mvts. 3 &4 Tuesday: a new blog from Michael Haber, "Practicing, Some Practical Advice" (Part 1) Wednesday: two new CelloLessons from CelloBello's founder Paul Katz, "Eliminate Left Hand Tension" Thursday: Part 2 of Michael Haber's "Practicing, Some Practical Advice" Friday: an interview with Alisa Weilerstein, "The Psychology of Sound Production" Enjoy!
The Fall 2017 CelloChat Schedule is Here!
Hello CelloBello Followers! We're excited to announce our Fall 2017 CelloChat lineup. Join us starting October 1st via Facebook Live on the CelloBello Facebook page. All Chats take place at 8 PM ET unless otherwise noted. Stay tuned for updates! October 1 & 8 NORMAN FISCHER The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University October 15 PAUL KATZ New England Conservatory October 22 ASTRID SCHWEEN Juilliard Quartet, The Juilliard School October 29 GREGORY BEAVER Chiara Quartet, University of Nebraska-Lincoln November 5 ASTRID SCHWEEN Juilliard Quartet, The Juilliard School November 12 JEFFREY ZEIGLER Mannes College at The New School November 19 YEESUN KIM Borromeo String Quartet, New England Conservatory December 3 LAURENCE LESSER New England Conservatory December 10 LLUIS CLARET New England Conservatory December 17 AMIT PELED Tempest Trio, Peabody Conservatory of Music
Top Cellist Steven Isserlis Prevented from Boarding Flight with Cello
Reposted from Classic FM. A nightmare mix-up at the check-in desk meant that Steven Isserlis (and his cello) completely missed his flight—the last one that day… Last night, British cellist Steven Isserlis joined the growing list of cellists and other instrumentalists who have had problems checking in their instruments onto flights: Isserlis shared the whole nightmare story on his Facebook page, from the first heart-sinking moments of doubt "Have you paid for the cello seat?" to the dash across Heathrow to catch an alternative flight to a different city entirely. Here's the story in all its painful detail [retrieved from Mr. Isserlis' Facebook page]: "My latest adventure - courtesy of KLM... Now, I’d been planning to present another musical rant in the near future, and was already vaguely planning it [...]
Cellist Jeremy Tai Wins Irving M. Klein International String Competition 2017
Reposted from The Strad. The 18-year-old Bienen School of Music student receives the top prize of $13,000 and concert engagements Cellist Jeremy Tai has won first prize at the 32nd Annual Irving M. Klein International String Competition, held at San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The 18-year-old California native, who is currently studying with Hans Jørgen Jensen at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, received the top prize of $13,000 and concert engagements for his final round performance of Lisa Bielawa’s Insomnia Etude #3, and works of Grieg and Prokofiev. Second prize, worth $5,500, went to 20-year-old violist Zhanbo Zheng, while third prize, worth $2,500, went to 20-year-old violinist Kyumin Park. This year’s winners were whittled down from 99 applicants from 13 countries, aged between 15 and 23, by [...]
Pacifica Quartet Announces First Personnel Change in 17 Years
Reposted from The Violin Channel. The Pacifica Quartet has announced 2nd violinist Sibbi Bernhardsson and violist Masumi Per Rostad are set to leave the ensemble. The Indiana-based Pacifica String Quartet has today announced that 2nd violinist Sibbi Bernhardsson and violist Masumi Per Rostad are set to leave the ensemble at the end of the current season—the group’s first member change in seventeen years. Sibbi, who joined the quartet in 2000, is set to take up a teaching position on faculty at the Oberlin Conservatory School of Music. Masumi, who joined the ensemble in 2001, was last month appointed to the teaching faculty of the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. “Over the past 17 years, the Pacifica Quartet has played nearly 1500 concerts all over the world … [...]
French Cellist Victor Julien-Laferrière Wins Queen Elisabeth Competition 2017
Reposted from The Strad. "Victor Julien-Laferrière has this evening been named the winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition 2017. The 26-year-old French cellist triumphed in finals, held throughout this week in Brussels’ Palais des Beux Arts, performing the compulsory commission by Toshio Hosokawa and Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto with the Brussels Philharmonic conducted by Stéphane Denève. He receives a grand prize of €25,000 and concert opportunities. Second prize, worth €20,000, was awarded to 22-year-old Japanese cellist Yuya Okamoto, while third prize, worth €17,000 went to 22-year-old Colombian cellist Santiago Cañón-Valencia. 22-year-old Aurélien Pascal from France, 25-year-old Ivan Karizna from Belarus and 22-year-old Brannon Cho from the US received the €12,000 fourth prize, €10,000 fifth prize and €8,000 sixth prize respectively. The remaining six unranked finalists—Sihao He, Seungmin Kang, Maciej Kułakowski, JeongHyoun Christine Lee, Yan Levionnois and Bruno Philippe—each received [...]
An Interview with Paul Katz on “Talent Has Hunger”
Talent Has Hunger is an inspiring film about the power of music to consume, enhance, and propel lives. Filmed over 7 years, the documentary offers a window into the mysterious world of the artist, and focuses on the challenges of guiding gifted young people through the struggles of mastering the cello. The film features the mentorship of master teacher Paul Katz, the founder of CelloBello. He joined our website blogmaster, Francesca McNeeley, for an interview to discuss the film and its impact: For people who may not realize the connection between this film and CelloBello, would you mind briefly talking about their shared history? About 10 years ago there was a cellist who went to Harvard and did her doctoral dissertation in legacy and mentoring; she made myself and my class the subject [...]
Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Forgotten Masterpiece — by Brinton Averil Smith
With over 200 film scores to his name, it's more likely that you've heard Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's music than his name. Castelnuovo-Tedesco was born in Florence in 1895 into a family that had been in Italy for generations, since the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492. His career as a composer began with conservatory study in Italy, and by the 1920s he was beginning to garner attention in greater Europe. In 1932 Mario began a lifelong friendship with the guitarist Andres Segovia, who inspired perhaps his most famous work, the Guitar Concerto No.1, and became an important champion of his music. It is largely due to Segovia's influence that Mario wrote over 100 works for the guitar, which today form an important and frequently heard part of that instrument's repertoire. [...]
Spring 2017 CelloChats on CelloBello
Join the interactive conversation on CelloChat with our incredible hosts, on Sundays this spring! All Chats take place at 8 PM ET unless otherwise noted. All Chats are broadcast via Facebook Live on the CelloBello Facebook page: March 12 ROBERT JESSELSON University of South Carolina April 2 MARTHA BALDWIN Cleveland Orchestra April 9 NORMAN FISCHER The Shepherd School of Music, Rice University April 16 YEESUN KIM Borromeo String Quartet, New England Conservatory April 23 ROBERT DEMAINE Los Angeles Philharmonic May 1 LLUIS CLARET New England Conservatory May 14 JEFFREY ZEIGLER Mannes College at The New School May 21 DAVID YING Eastman School of Music May 28 INBAL SEGEV Amerigo Trio PAST CELLOCHATS THIS SEASON: FIVE SPECIAL CHATS CELEBRATING THE CELLO SUITES OF J.S. BACH January 29 "Bowings in Bach - A [...]
CelloBello Launches an All-New Website
Welcome to the All-New CelloBello! We are thrilled to finally unveil this classy new website; more beautiful, more versatile, and more flexible than we ever imagined possible. Seven years of growth necessitated a move from CelloBello's original digs to a roomier and more updated new home. We are certain that you will enjoy the dazzling graphics, mobile friendly layout, and all of the many new lessons, master classes, interviews, and substantive new content of this site. Please take a self-guided tour through all sections, and familiarize yourself with the layout and navigation. The website is now mobile friendly, and will conform to your smart phone or tablet screen, making it easier than ever to take it into a practice room and keep it next to you as an educational resource as you work. [...]
CelloBello’s Celebration of the 300th Anniversary of the Cello Suites of J.S. Bach
The six solo suites of J.S. Bach (composed 1717–1723) are so central to the life of every cellist, young and old, amateur and professional, that we don't really need an anniversary year to celebrate them. Yet, while historians are unable to tell us in precisely which years they were written, many feel it’s possible that Bach began composing them exactly 300 years ago, in the year 1717. The wildest science fiction of Bach’s day could never have predicted the Internet, that the music of this modest composer in the little German town of Cöthen would be revered and celebrated worldwide with livestreamed concerts, CelloChats, master classes and blogs. But that is exactly what we are doing on CelloBello! Nothing could be more central to a website devoted to the cello, than the celebration [...]
Happy 60th Birthday Marcy Rosen!
CelloBello pays tribute to the extraordinary American cellist Marcy Rosen on the occasion of her 60th birthday! Check out her interviews Learning from Your Students, Left Hand Positions and Vibrato, and her wonderful master class on the Dvorak Concerto. And there’s more of Marcy coming soon! Watch for her masterclass on the Mendelssohn D Major Sonata, and two additional interviews: The Bow Makes Expression Bow Arm Fundamentals For more about Marcy, read this terrific interview.
Cellist Taeguk Mun wins $25,000 János Starker Foundation Award
Reprinted from The Strad 12/14/2016 South Korean cellist Taeguk Mun has won the János Starker Foundation Award, worth $25,000. Granted to cellists under the age of 30 ‘who have already begun a significant career in music’, the prize was created in memory of legendary Hungarian-American cellist and pedagogue János Starker, who died in April 2013 at the age of 88. Candidates submit an unedited video recording of six works, representing Pre-Classical, Classical, Romantic, 20th Century and Contemporary eras of Western music. A former Juilliard School student, Mun is currently a pupil of Laurence Lesser at the New England Conservatory in Boston. He won the Pablo Casals International Cello Competition in 2014, and the Andre Navarra International Cello Competition in 2011.