- Lynn Harrell
[ [http://www.answers.com/topic/lynn-harrell Lynn Harrell at Answers.com] ] ) is an American classical
cellist .Harrell was born in
New York City, NY of musician parents; his father was the distinguishedbaritone Mack Harrell and his mother, Marjorie Fulton, was aviolinist . At the age of eight he decided to learn to play the cello. When Lynn was 12, his family moved toDallas, Texas , where Lynn studied with Lev Aronson. After high school, he studied at theJuilliard School in New York and then at theCurtis Institute of Music inPhiladelphia . His influential cello teachers includedLeonard Rose andOrlando Cole . He made his debut in 1961 playing with theNew York Philharmonic Orchestra atCarnegie Hall .While still a teenager, Harrell was orphaned. His father died of cancer in 1960 and then, two years later, his mother died in a car accident when Lynn Harrell was 17. "After that," as he has [http://www.cello.org/Newsletter/Articles/harrell.html said] , "I moved around to different family friends' houses with my one suitcase and cello until I was 18, when I joined the
Cleveland Orchestra . In part, I got that job because [its conductor]George Szell knew my father through their collaboration at theMetropolitan Opera ." Harrell was thereafter a cellist with theCleveland Orchestra and its principal cellist from 1964 to 1971.Harrell made his recital debut in New York in 1971 and since then has performed internationally as a recitalist, chamber musician, and soloist with orchestras. He is a renowned teacher who has taught at prestigious music schools and conservatories, including the Royal Academy London, the
Aspen Music Festival , the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the Juilliard School. He served as the Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute from 1988-1992. From 1986-1993, he held the post of "Gregor Piatigorsky Endowed Chair in Violoncello" at theUSC Thornton School of Music inLos Angeles ; he was only the second person to ever hold the title, following the great Piatigorsky himself. Currently, he is on the faculty of theShepherd School of Music atRice University and splits time betweenHouston ,Texas andSanta Monica ,California with his wife, the violinist Helen Nightengale, and their children, Hanna and Noah. He has twin children from his first marriage to the journalist and writer Linda Blandford - Kate, an actress and yoga teacher, and Eben, a journalist, both live and work in London.Lynn Harrell plays a 1721 Montagnana cello he bought with the proceeds of his parents' estate and also a 1673 Antonio
Stradivarius cello that belonged to the late British cellistJacqueline du Pre .On April 7, 1994, he appeared at the Vatican with the
Royal Philharmonic conducted byGilbert Levine in a concert dedicated to the memory of the six million Jews who perished in theHolocaust . The audience for this historic event, which was the Vatican's first official commemoration of the Holocaust, includedPope John Paul II and the Chief Rabbi of Rome.Awards and Recognitions
*Piatigorsky Award
*Ford Foundation Concert Artists' Award
*The inauguralAvery Fisher Prize (jointly withMurray Perahia ).Grammy Awards for Best Chamber Music Performance:
*Vladimir Ashkenazy , Lynn Harrell &Itzhak Perlman for "Beethoven: The Complete Piano Trios" (1988)
*Vladimir Ashkenazy, Lynn Harrell & Itzhak Perlman for "Tchaikovsky: Piano Trio in A minor" (1982)References
External links
* [http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~musi/facultybios/harrell.html Faculty bio at the Shepherd School of Music]
* [http://www.cello.org/Newsletter/Articles/harrell.html Conversation with Lynn Harrell]
* [http://inkpot.com/concert/int_harrell.html Flying Inkpot] Conversation with Harrell
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