TUTTI CELLI CONTENTS -- Volume 11, Issue 4

Tim Janof, Editor


Membership Letters


Featured Artist
** PAUL KATZ **

Interview
** GREENHOUSE AT 90 **

Article
** POPULARITY CONTEST: MOST COMMONLY USED ETUDE
BOOKS IN AMERICAN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES **



ICS Forum/Cello/Equipment Chat Board

Activities and Announcements

Other Internet Music Resources


MEMBERSHIP LETTERS


>> I am new to the cello. It is something I've wanted to learn for quite some time. My father, an experienced conductor, exposed me to classical music early. I have a clear recollection of him rehearsing Schumann's 1st symphony, 2nd movement, working for quite some time to get what he called "honey " out of the cellos. I developed quite an appreciation for music, but my passion and expression tended more toward mathematics, so I became an economist. This year I turn 50. I bought an inexpensive cello about 6 months ago and began my journey. I realized that in 50 years I will be sixty (see what a Ph.D. in math gets you). The point is, in ten years, I will be 60 whether I know how to play the cello or not. The difficulty and challenge of the instrument simply encourages enthusiasm. I cannot put it down. I was net surfing and came across this site and just wanted to tell you I enjoyed it and have recorded it among my 'Favorites.'

Jeffrey

>> I wanted to mention the Association françise du violoncelle, which was created five years ago in Paris by a group of musicians including Janos Starker, Maud Tortelier (Paul's widow) and Etienne Vatelot, the famous luthier.

We have a website, publish a quarterly magazine (excerpts of the first 17 issues can be read on our site), and organize various events focused on the cello. For instance, next month, we shall have ten young cellists studying in Paris music schools auditioned by the members of the Rostropovich competition; a few days later, we shall devote a congress to the acoustics of the cello; and just before Christmas, we shall pay a tribute to Maurice Baquet, who died last July. Not to mention the important celebration of Pierre Fournier's hundreth anniversary next year in Lyons, and an international cello congress.

Michel Oriano
Président de l 'Association françise du violoncelle

>> I am an independent film director and producer and am getting thing ready for my new project titled "Genius" and it deals with the events in the life of a female cellist. If you take a look at our website -- http://www.redmoonbiz.com -- by clicking the section: FILMS, you will find a description of who I am looking for.

Manuel Montenegro
Redmoonbiz
Vancouver

>> FREE SCORE, PARTS, AND CD recording for The View from Carew, one of 14 clarinet-cello-piano trios by American composer Rick Sowash. Hear some of the clarinet works at http://www.sowash.com/recordings/chamber.html. Also available: free score-and-parts for the one-mov 't string quartet, Fantasia on "Shenandoah." Hear this work at http://www.sowash.com/recordings/trail.html. The score-and-parts are also available, free, in a transcription for four cellos.

Rick Sowash

>> I decided to learn the cello. Your site is very helpful and I found a list of required reading, but it is very long. Althought I'll buy all of them in the long run, can you give me a brief list for theory, history, scales,etc. I want to 'learn music' not to play cello. In fact I just want to be a machine (be able read notes and play what I read.) No emotions, no falling in love with music. I am 25 years old so a long, stable marriage with a cello is better for me than being in love with a cello. :) Maybe I can fall in love with it.... Ask me 15 years from now. So the more boring, the more basic the better. It's really difficult to find competent teachers here in Turkey.

Altug Dural
Turkey

** If you would like to respond to something you have read in 'Tutti Celli', write to editor@cello.org and type "Membership Letter" in subject field. (Letters may be edited.)**


ICS FEATURED ARTIST


PAUL KATZ

by Tim Janof

Paul Katz is known to concertgoers the world over as cellist of the Cleveland Quartet, which during an international career of 26 years, made more than 2,500 appearances on four continents. As a member of the celebrated ensemble from 1969-1995, Katz performed at the White House and on many television shows, including "CBS Sunday Morning," NBC's "Today Show," "The Grammy Awards" (the first classical musicians to appear on that show,) and in "In The Mainstream: The Cleveland Quartet," a one hour documentary televised across the U.S. and Canada. In collaboration with the country's largest PBS station, WGBH Boston, and the New England Conservatory of Music, Katz has recently embarked on an extensive DVD/Website project on cello pedagogy, an endeavor that will occupy much of his next two years.

Katz has received many honors, the most recent including the "Chevalier du Violoncelle," awarded by the Eva Janzer Memorial Cello Center at Indiana University for distinguished achievements and contributions to the world of cello playing and teaching; The Richard M. Bogomolny National Service Award, Chamber Music America's highest honor, awarded for a lifetime of distinguished service in the field of chamber music; an Honorary Doctorate of Musical Arts from Albright College; and the American String Teacher's Association "Artist-Teacher of the Year 2003." Katz is a passionate spokesperson for chamber music the world over and served for six years as President of Chamber Music America. As an author, he has appeared in numerous publications and wrote the liner notes for the Cleveland Quartet's three-volume set of the complete Beethoven Quartets on RCA Red Seal.

Katz has appeared as soloist in New York, Cleveland, Toronto, Detroit, Los Angeles, and other cities throughout North America. He was a student of Gregor Piatigorsky, Janos Starker, Bernard Greenhouse, Gabor Rejto and Leonard Rose. In 1962 he was selected nationally to play in the historic Pablo Casals Master Class in Berkeley, California. He was a prizewinner in the Munich and Geneva Competitions, and for three summers he was a participant at the Marlboro Music Festival. Of his many recordings, those of particular interest to cellists include Dohnanyi's Cello Sonata for ProArte Records, and the Cleveland Quartet's recording on Sony Classical of the Schubert two-cello quintet with Yo-Yo Ma. The Cleveland Quartet has nearly seventy recordings to its credit on RCA Victor, Telarc International, Sony, Philips and ProArte. These recording have earned many distinctions including the all-time best selling chamber music release of Japan, 11 Grammy nominations, Grammy Awards for Best Chamber Music Recording and Best Recorded Contemporary Composition in 1996, and "Best of the Year" awards from Time Magazine and Stereo Review.

In September of 2001, Mr. Katz joined the faculty of The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, following five years at Rice University in Houston, and twenty years of teaching at the Eastman School of Music. He has mentored many of the fine young string quartets on the world's stages today including the Biava, Cavani, Chester, Jupiter, Kuss, Lafayette, Maia, Meliora, Parker, T'ang and Ying Quartets. One of America's most sought after cello teachers, his cello students, in addition to membership in many of the above quartets, have achieved international careers with solo CDs on Decca, EMI, Channel Classics and Sony Classical, have occupied positions in many of the world's major orchestras including principal chairs in Oslo, Norway, Osaka, Japan, and the St Louis Symphony, and are members of many American symphony orchestras such as Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, National Symphony, Pittsburgh, Rochester and St. Louis. Katz has taught at many of the major summer music programs including twenty years at the Aspen Festival, the Yale Summer School of Chamber Music, the Perlman Music Program, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Germany, ProQuartet in France, Domaine Forget, Orford, and the Banff Center for the Arts in Canada, the Steans Institute of The Ravinia Festival, and is a Director of the Shouse Artist Institute of the Great Lakes Chamber Festival. His hundreds of master classes worldwide include many of the major music schools of North and South America, Europe, Israel, Japan and China. Mr. Katz frequently sits on the juries of international cello and chamber music competitions, most recently the Leonard Rose International Cello Competition and the international string quartet competitions of Banff, London, Munich, Graz and Geneva.

Mr. Katz plays an Andrea Guarneri cello dated 1669.

TJ: Who was your first cello teacher?

PK: My first music lessons were on the piano, which I began at age 5. By accident, my parents found a wonderful woman who had me transpose every little piece I learned into different keys. I learned to think harmonically and learned key signatures, intervals, and chords as a mother tongue. I switched to cello at age 8 and began with Louis Miller, a local cello teacher in Long Beach, CA. He was a student of Joseph Schuster and earned his living as a CPA. Perhaps it was his profession that made him naturally fussy, but from the beginning I learned that little things mattered. I worked with him a good number of years. My first chamber music experience wasn't until age 13 in a summer music camp in Idyllwild, CA, where I was placed in a quartet that played Beethoven Op. 18, #1. I remember how overwhelmed I was at first trying to listen to so many notes around me played not by me! In the end though, it was an inspiring experience, thanks to my coach, Eleonore Schoenfeld.

I also briefly studied with Victor Sazer, author of the recent New Directions in Cello Playing. Sazer lived down the street from my home when I was in high school. He and his wife were friends of my parents, and I first met him when I did some babysitting for them.

Was Sazer experimenting with notions of "following the body's natural impulses" at that time?

Not that I specifically remember, though he was an original thinker and was not shy about challenging traditional approaches that to him just didn't make sense. He was an extremely good teacher and a kind, warm human being. Sazer had studied with Leonard Rose and he had some great bow arm and shifting suggestions. He gave me a lot of Popper etudes and got me moving around the instrument. He also had me consider long versus short endpins. Sazer was an entirely different class of teacher from what I had been exposed up to that point. He gave me some eye-opening lessons.

(Click here for the complete transcript.)


INTERVIEW


BERNARD GREENHOUSE AT 90

by Selma Gokcen

Bernard Greenhouse at Wigmore Hall, a DVD co-production of the Violoncello Society of London and Cello Classics, was released this September. This interview with Mr. Greenhouse took place on 30th July at 'Casa Verdi,' his home in Wellfleet, a picturesque New England seaside town on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

***********************

SG: Bernard, you gave us an extraordinary day of master classes at the Wigmore Hall in February of this year. What are your recollections of the day?

BG: I remember being completely involved with the students and able to ignore the fact that I was being filmed. I was pleased when I heard results from my teaching and a little bit frustrated by not always finding the right words to get immediate results. For the most part I felt it was a normal day of teaching and I was able to go through the day without being aware of the cameras. I was, however, aware of the fact that we had a large audience. One has to be extremely careful in making suggestions which can be misunderstood and bring about the wrong results. Wording becomes so important.

How do you establish that immediate rapport with the pupils?

My goal is to put myself into the body of the student, to realize what they are doing to produce what comes out, and then to make the correction.

That requires a great deal of empathy.

The student does not realise what they are doing to produce the error. When you make the correction, they are surprised because they can finally hear themselves and make the change.

(Click here for the complete transcript.)


ARTICLE


POPULARITY CONTEST: MOST COMMONLY USED ETUDE BOOKS IN AMERICAN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

by Dr. Ozan Tunca

Scales, etudes, performance repertoire, and orchestral excerpts are the basic teaching materials for the cello student. In addition to scales and arpeggios, etudes provide both the facility and the technical foundation for the student's development. Etudes offer a concentrated study of one or more technical aspects in a short musical form. Depending upon the author and the date of composition, etudes differ both in style and technical demands. Cello students entering universities are most likely at different playing levels and although they may require different study materials, there are some common cello etude books that apply to the majority.

It is only natural for teachers to use their own past training as a source for determining the proper etudes for their students. Teachers consider the level of difficulty and the efficiency of etudes and can compare them with a pool of other studies that they have encountered over the years. On the other hand, in order to be informed about teaching materials other than the familiar ones, teachers need a source that lists the availability and the level of such materials.

My research was done by sending surveys to randomly selected cello professors in American colleges and universities. Respectively, Popper, Schroeder and Duport are the composers of the most commonly used cello etude books. Popper's book is the most chromatic one, Schroeder's is a collection of etudes composed by different cellists, and Duport's is the oldest of all the books that were in the survey. When combined, these books offer variety in terms of technique, style and musical era.

(Click here for the complete transcript.)



ICS FORUM/CELLO/EQUIPMENT CHAT


In addition to our boards, you are welcome to contact our forum hosts directly. For a complete list of ICS Forum Hosts please see http://www.cello.org/The_Society/Staff.html

>> Classical vs. Non-Classical

ranya: The website for the New Directions Cello Association, http://www.newdirectionscello.com, has had a makeover. You can now register and participate in community features such as forums and chat. The New Directions Cello Association (NDCA) is a private organization that has created a network for the growing field of alternative and nonclassical cello. The goals of the NDCA are to encourage interaction among nonclassical cellists, and to promote awareness among all cellists and the musically oriented public about the contributions that cellists are making in many styles of contemporary music. This encompasses those musical styles which are not commonly taught to cellists at music schools (jazz, blues, rock, folk, experimental, ethnic, etc.) especially those involving some amount of improvisation. The NDCA publishes a newsletter called Cello City Ink twice a year which contains interviews, reviews, articles, and other information related to nonclassical cello. Edited by: ranya at: 8/16/05

celletto: Non traditional applications for cello may be seem OK but overall the survival of Celloland and Classical music in America is in doubt. This is in effect joining the majority.

ranya: celletto, can you explain a little better? Are you saying that all cellists should only play classical music and should not have interests outside of that?

celletto: Many things we may experience as "new" because they are different but new is a marketing term as in "new and improved" or a term about recent events, i.e. news. I object to newness as an approximation for alternative because we are the alternative to the current trend of music in America. And I can safely predict that the rising societies of the East, China, Japan and Korea, will adopt our music because of its satisfying depth and intellectual calibur.

I keep noticing people looking for cellists in "Indie bands," whatever they are . Now I like a little raga from time to time but I don't consider nightclub entertaining a new way to go with the cello.

etsisk: Celletto, brother, you've missed this one all the way from Sunday!

1. Indie band: independent music -- not of the usual classifications, neat stuff. Nothing to do with India and ragas and whatnot.

2. I don't think that New Directions is about being "new" for its own sake, but rather in exploring those new directions. And for music that has rarely had cellos in it, playing that music IS a new direction for cello. Maybe new AND improved, for some folks. That would be for them to decide, I should think.

Hey, you want to hear classical (and I frequently do) then listen to it. Doesn't make much sense to try and dissuade others from playing other stuff, though -- much less try and lay guilt on them for wanting to!

Omar Firestone: As I understand the "Musicians Social Contract", most people come, and pay, to hear a cellist, individually or as part of an ensemble, to experience the unique "pull on their own heartstrings" that our instrument creates. The cello offers the best match to the size of the human resonating cavity, covering the entire range of the human voice. Hence cellos are the only instruments -- excluding instrument "families" (flute, saxophone, etc.) capable of forming a satisfying homogenized ensemble. The visual play of both hands engaged in activities on the scale of everyday motions adds another dimension of sensory gratification.

Cellists fulfilling other roles, and/or performing music that does not exploit the full expressive potential of the instrument, gently remind the audience of the existence of the best "classical" music -- without which the "avant guarde" loses meaning.

Clemzilla: It's my hope that after you read my views, you'll reconsider the motivation behind your sentiments.

I've been playing Western Art Music (WAM) for more than four decades, so my love of this wonderful art form should be beyond question. Having said that, I offer this observation: however uplifting, exultant, majestic or profound it may be, it isn't the end-all and be-all of Human musical expression. To believe so is to allow myopia to govern one's scope.

There is a world of expressivity extant in other "non-classical" forms that has been around for centuries. These forms have not faded into obsolescence, nor been supplanted by your beloved WAM for one reason above all others... they still provide all that is necessary in the expressive role they play. No other form will suffice when this particular form of expression is what's called for. In other words: when I want to hear the transcendent qualities of the chants of Tibetan monks, please don't give me Mozart.

By the same token, newer forms of music (some based on the tonal and structural elements of WAM, I'll concede) are now here, and have persisted independent of the "Classical ethic" for precisely the same reason.... they provide a quality of expression that so-called "Classical" simply cannot. That makes these forms of music no more or less valuable than Brahms, Bach, or Buxtehude... they simply provide a means to expression that mankind has found necessary, and seek to satisfy that need.

I am a performer of many styles of music, including Jazz, Rock, experimental Avant-Garde, and Pop. I do these outside my regular job as a symphony and opera performer. And I don't just do them "for yuks" or to "have a fling"... I do them because they allow me a creative outlet that is failed woefully by Classical music.

There is a piece of me that wants to see an audience in tears at the conclusion of my performance of the Barber Concerto 2nd mvt. There is a piece of me that wants to see a dance floor full of sweaty, writhing individuals trying to break their hips to a funk line that I'm laying down. And there is a piece of me that wants to see audience members closing their eyes, shutting out the world, and letting me take them out to sea as I solo through 3 choruses of Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage."

In each setting, my goal is to communicate with and express to people... in the language or idiom that they can hear. As a professional performer, it's my duty to learn as much as I can, so I may say as much as I can... to whomever can hear me. The diversity makes me a better artist, and I get to share and interact with more music lovers than if I limited myself to playing only "Music by Dead Europeans."

In the past year, I've: plugged my cello into a 1500 watt PA system, and played funk for season ticket holders performed a crossover jazz/hiphop version of the Beatles' "Come Together" at a Symphony Board of Directors meeting I played unaccompanied Bach in a beer-soaked dive. In all instances, I've had people approach me and say, "I never knew a cello could sound like that." (I hope they were paying me a compliment....)

That reaction is what I'm looking for -- it's why I work at so many styles, and continue practicing the Classics every day, to this day- it's the reaction that tells me these people actually heard the sound of a cello.

The cello is too wonderfully expressive and flexible to limit its qualities to only one style. To do so is to fail to do justice to the cello, and all it can do.

Yuuki: I can tell you that Asian countries have very long and very respectable musical traditions of their own and there are certainly people who continue to play and enjoy our own art/folk music. Just because they are not popular or well-known in the West, it does not mean that they are inferior or have no value. Your musical palate has simply not been educated to appreciate such music....

>> Practicing

ARBettridge: This summer I had very little individual practice time compared to the school year. Because of this I was forced to do a lot of thinking about practicing. Much of this information is not original ideas; I've synthesized things from lots of people into a framework for my practicing.

I'd like to start with a couple questions and my answers and then some of the things I learned. ' Q: Why do we practice?
A: To improve our playing.

Q: How does practicing improve our playing?
A: By teaching our brain and body to work together.

So, the goal of any practicing is to make our body work in unison with our mind. The less time this takes, the better.

I've figured out that good, effective practice requires a couple things:

  1. Problem identification: figuring out what's wrong. If there's more then one problem, I work on one at a time determined by my hierarchy of need.
  2. Solution identification: finding a way to fix the problem.
  3. Brutally slow application: practice starting at 1/4th tempo and slowly working up.
  4. Variation: Any passage can be practiced in rhythms (I'll include a list later of how I do this.) Practice as well overshifting and undershifting, shifting without a slide, shifting with a huge slide, etc.
  5. Retention: Stop working on it after you can nail it with 95% frequency. Come back to it in twenty or thirty minutes.
The Hierarchy of Need:

The basic fundamentals (in no particular order) of cello playing:

  1. Rhythm
  2. Intonation
  3. Quality of Sound

After the fundamentals I focus on:

  1. Bowings
  2. Dynamics
  3. Musicality

To practice rhythm, I find the smallest division of the beat and play every note subdivided into that (a halfnote gets eight sixteenths, for example.)

For intonation I practice very slowly, checking notes against open strings and double stops for string crossings. I also isolate every shift so that I can identify the hand positions necessary for the passage.

Quality of sound is harder to practice because it's something that takes years as opposed to hours to develop. Some things that are key for me are sitting up straight, bowing parallel to the bridge, not pressing into the string, using more speed than pressure and relaxing my bow hand.

I like to practice bowings and dynamics the same way, which is to at first remove the left hand from the equation and play the passage with only open strings. Once the right hand is really solid, I add the left hand, and slow it down again.

Practicing musicality is extremely hard for me. I've found it best if I have a cohesive musical idea before putting a passage together, rather than trying to create one on the fly. There are so many aspects of musicality that it's essentially impossible to list them here, but a few that I think of are: rubato, agogic, tension, resolution, and dynamics.

Rhythms:

In addition to the traditional dotted rhythms that everyone uses, I have a pretty crazy system of rhythms that I learned this summer. What I do is count the number of notes and then divide that into as many patterns as I can think of. Let's say I have a 4/4 measure of sixteenth notes: this gives me seventeen notes to work with (the measure plus the first beat of the next.)

I take these seventeen notes and find groupings that work:

3 3 3 3 3 2
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3
2 3 2 3 2 3 2
1 2 3 2 1 2 3 2 1 (my favorite)
1 2 3 4 3 2 2
1 3 1 3 1 3 1 3 1
3 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 1

The combinations are essentially limitless. The idea is to keep your mind engaged and to teach your fingers the notes independent of the original rhythm (because it may be faster, slower, or just plain different when you have to perform.) Each of these rhythms can be shifted about within the measure. The more rhythms I do, the better the passage feels in my fingers.

Specific Practice Ideas: (in no particular order)

  1. Always work with a metronome. If you don't, the first time you turn it on can be a really nasty surprise. Turn it off once the passage is really solid.
  2. Save running for the very end of your practicing. Most of the time, running a piece is just time wasted. Only when you think you've fixed everything should you run it, so you can find out what still needs work.
  3. Pick a fingering early and stick with it. Every time you change fingerings you confuse you confuse your body. I have a system for picking fingerings:

    a. Use the fingerings that feel most natural; first position feels better than thumb on the C string.
    b. Use open strings and harmonics.
    c. Shift on bow changes.
    d. Shift of half steps.
    e. Shift on strings changes.
    f. Shift on strong beats.
    g. Shift sequentially (2-1, 1-2, etc.)
    h. Shift on long notes.
    i. Avoid two shifts in a row.

  4. Practice slowly! Give your body and mind time to learn. �Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.�
  5. Practice in fifty minute increments with ten minute breaks. This gives your body time to recover.
  6. Make sure your instrument is in tune. You'd be amazed how many people don't do this.
  7. Practice with vibrato. You will play with vibrato, so you should practice with it. I don't dispute the importance of non-vibrato work, but with vibrato is equal important.
  8. If you're having trouble making a passage even, use the metronome to emphasize one of the subdivisions, i.e. the 2nd sixteenth note. Extremely difficult, but very rewarding.
  9. Keep your instrument in good condition; poor sound can be the result of old strings or a bad setup as easily as bad technique.
  10. Keep yourself in good shape. Sleep regularly, eat well, avoid excess stress, deal with problems in your life as they arise; don't put them off. A happy body and a happy mind make practicing so much easier.
  11. Be warmed up. Start with scales and slow octave shifts, then work technique. If you don't have to fight your body you'll learn much faster.
  12. Speed up and slow down your metronome. Move up two clicks and then back one. Again this keeps things interesting.

This is hardly the end of the topic for me, but it's a great starting point. Please feel free to add questions or comments, disagree with me mercilessly or whatever you'd like. I'm hoping at some point to make this something I can give to people, so the more critique the better!

>> Opening William Tell Overture Solo

dolphind88: I'm playing the solo at the beginning of William Tell in my youth orchestra concert coming up in about a week. The long trill starting in measure 37 of the solo is notated in the part as F#-G# the whole time, but in the excerpt book I consulted and on the recording I have, it appears that the G# should change to a G natural durning the 3rd measure of a trill, returning to G# for the 4th. Any thoughts on this? Traditions, etc? Any other helpful hints/suggestions/things to know about the solo?

David Sanders: Remember that it's a very lyrical solo, so don't pay too much attention to the dots on the quarter notes under the slurs.

BA: Just picked up the Ricordi score based on the critical edition. The G natural is definite (both trills notated as starting from the upper note) and interestingly the nachschlag isn't there at the end of the trill, which would actually simplify the rhythm moving from mm.40-41 quite a bit. Also say goodbye to the accents on the high C's in mm.4 and 9 (I never could make them work musically), the m.25 entrance is in pp (!!!), and the crescendo in m.27 goes all the way to the end of the measure, not a hairpin. The note in the upper divisi of the ripieno celli (bassi aren't playing) in m.39 is a D natural. There's lots more -- worth the money to buy it. Amazing that there is so much detail in a score that was most likely composed faster than most people could have copied it.


DEPARTMENTS


ACTIVITIES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

** Members can submit announcements or news to editor@cello.org **

1. Casals Art Exhibition

By Feb. 02 2006, an art exhibit on Casals and other cellists will be opened in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It will then move to Spain and Japan.

www.eakaba.com.

2. New Feuermann CD

Cello Classics has released a recording of Feuermann in the Saint-Saens Concerto (live). Also included on the "enhanced CD" is the legendary Feuermann film of the Dvorak Rondo and Popper Spinning Song.

www.celloclassics.com/cc1013.htm.

3. Bach"Annalia"

You are cordially invited to attend The Tenth Annual Bach"Annalia" cello festival, which will take place in Cincinnati, OH on November 12 & 13. Hosted by eminent cellist Yehuda Hanani, this year's event is dedicated to an exploration of all the piano/cello works by Beethoven. Highlights include a traversal of the Sonatas and variations in two performances; master classes for advanced students; symposia & discussions by leading performers and scholars, including:

Be inspired and emotionally fortified! The entire event is free and professionals, amateurs, and students are all welcome. This is a rare opportunity for cellists and pianists alike.

Space is limited, so email now to make reservations: summerboggess@gmail.com.

4. Natalie Clein honored

Natalie Clein has been chosen as the Young British Performer of the Year at the Classical Brit Awards. She received the award for her EMI Recording of the Brahms Sonatas and Schubert 'Arpeggione' Sonata with Charles Owen.

5. Isserlis records a disc for kids

Steven Isserlis has recorded a disc aimed at youngsters, Music for Children, along with pianist Stephen Hough and narrator Simon Callow. It is due to be released by BIS in June 2006.

6. Virginia Quarles Wendt dies

Cellist and artist Virginia Quarles Wendt died at the age of 96. A former student of Felix Salmond and Paul Bazelaire, she later played with the Denver Symphony Orchestra, the Central City Opera, and the Norfolk Symphony. She was a charter member of the Richmond Symphony, where she played for 12 years.

7. Eleanor Warren dies

Cellist and teacher Eleanor Warren has died at the age of 87. From the mid-70's she was head of the Royal Northern College of Music, going on the run two London chamber music departments at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal College of Music. As a young girl she studied alongside Zara Nelsova at the London Violoncello School.

8. Zuill Bailey honored

Zuill Bailey has won this year's Classical Foundation recording award for musical achievement and promise. The prize is a recording of the complete works of Beethoven for cello and piano, which will be released on Delos.

9. New Directions Cello Association

The website for the New Directions Cello Association http://www.newdirectionscello.com has had a makeover. You can now register and participate in community features such as forums and chat. The New Directions Cello Association (NDCA) is a private organization that has created a network for the growing field of alternative and nonclassical cello. The goals of the NDCA are to encourage interaction among nonclassical cellists, and to promote awareness among all cellists and the musically oriented public about the contributions that cellists are making in many styles of contemporary music. This encompasses those musical styles which are not commonly taught to cellists at music schools (jazz, blues, rock, folk, experimental, ethnic, etc.) especially those involving some amount of improvisation. The NDCA publishes a newsletter called Cello City Ink twice a year which contains interviews, reviews, articles, and other information related to nonclassical cello.

10. Oliver Edel dies

Excerpted from the July 29, 2005, Washington Post article by Patricia Sullivan

Oliver Edel, 99, a concert cellist who taught at the University of Michigan, the famous Interlochen Center for the Arts and Washington's Levine School of Music, died June 29 after a heart attack at his summer home in Traverse City, Mich. Mr. Edel taught generations of students the discipline, craft, and beauty of the cello, inspiring many to pursue careers in music. Scores of his students are professional musicians with solo careers, positions in major orchestras or posts on university faculties.

Born in Yonkers, N.Y., Mr. Edel attended the choir school of St. Thomas Church in New York City. He began his cello studies with May Muckle while attending Carteret Academy in Orange, N.J., and earned degrees from the Neighborhood Music School, now part of the Manhattan School of Music, and the Conservatoire Americain in Fontainebleau, France, with additional studies at Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris under the tutelage of Diran Alexanian.

Mr. Edel became a faculty member at the Manhattan School in 1925 and the next year made his solo debut at Steinway Hall, across the street from Carnegie Hall. He was a founding member of the original Manhattan Quartet, which formally debuted at Town Hall in 1928.

Mr. Edel enjoyed a colorful concert career during the 1930s and 1940s with the Manhattan Quartet and, later, the Roth String Quartet. In 1948, he was appointed to the faculty at the University of Michigan School of Music in Ann Arbor. His concert career again flourished when, in 1949, he and three colleagues formed the Stanley Quartet, an ensemble that became an institution. He left the University of Michigan in 1975 after reaching its mandatory retirement age.

In 1976, Mr. Edel joined the faculty at the newly formed Levine School of Music. During these later years, he remained active as a cellist with the Handel Festival Orchestra, playing many seasons at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and several European tours. He continued teaching cello and coaching chamber music in the Washington area well into his nineties.

He won the Undergraduate Teaching Award from the University of Michigan and outstanding service awards from national organizations including Chamber Music America and the American String Teachers Association. He directed the Adult Chamber Music Conference in Interlochen, Mich., for many years.

11. Paul Katz DVD/website project

In collaboration with the country's largest PBS station, WGBH Boston, and the New England Conservatory of Music, Katz has recently embarked on an extensive DVD/Website project on cello pedagogy, an endeavor that will occupy much of his next two years.

12. Yo-Yo in another soundtrack

Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman performed on a new John Williams soundtrack to the film, "Memories of a Geisha," which will be released in the US next month.

13. New cello work

Colin Matthews has written a new work for solo cello and orchestra for the re-opening and re-dedication of Dresden's Frauenkirche, the city's Baroque masterpiece destroyed by Allied bombing in 1945. Cellist Jan Vogler collaborated with the composer and the New York Philharmonic.

14. Orchestral news

15. Faculty Moves

16. Prize Winners

17. More Cello News

A cello news link has been engineered using Google.com's features. Be sure to bookmark it.

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=cellist+cello&btnG=Google+Search


OTHER INTERNET MUSIC RESOURCES

** ICS NET Resource Editor: Tim Janof at editor@cello.org **

1. Full Moon

http://www.ethanwiner.com/cello.html

2. Essays

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~leonid/cello.htm

3. Erik Friedlander

http://www.erikfriedlander.com/cello.htm

4. Schumann Concerto

http://www.proarte.org/notes/schumann.htm

5. Color a Cello

http://www.dsokids.com/art/colorbook/cello.html

6. Cello Movie (really?)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318742/

7. Rostropovich Cello Competition

http://www.civp.com/rostro/rostrogb/arostrogb.html

8. Cello in Celtic Music

http://shorst.web.wesleyan.edu/cello/cello.techniques.htm

9. Web ring for cellists

http://t.webring.com/hub?ring=lewiscelloring

10. David Darling -- Cello Blue

http://www.hos.com/album.lasso?shortcatno=406


Copyright © 2005 Internet Cello Society


Direct correspondence to the appropriate ICS Staff
Editor: Tim Janof
Director: John Michel
Webmaster: Eric Hoffman
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