- Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma (b. October 7, 1955) is a French-born American cellist of world renown and the winner of multiple Grammy Awards.
- Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich KBE, (March 27 1927 - April 27 2007), known to close friends as “Slava”, was a cellist and conductor. He was married to the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. He was one of the greatest cellists of the twentieth century.
- Pablo Casals
Pau Carles Salvador Casals i Defilló, best known during his professional career as Pablo Casals, was a virtuoso Catalan Spanish cellist and later conductor. He made many recordings throughout his career, of solo, chamber, and orchestral music, also as conductor, but Casals is perhaps best remembered for the recording of the "Bach: Cello Suites" he made from 1936 to 1939.
- Isaac Stern
Isaac Stern was one of the finest violin virtuosi of the twentieth century. Born in Kremenetz, Ukraine on July 21, 1920, Isaac Stern was ten months old when his family moved to San Francisco. He received his first music lessons from his mother before enrolling at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 1928. He studied there until 1931, then studied privately with Louis Persinger.
- Matt Haimovitz
Matt Haimovitz (born 1970) is an Israeli-born cellist now based in the United States and Canada. He is known not only for his outstanding technical and musical skill, but also for his highly unusual concert career and repertoire choices. Haimovitz is as likely to be found playing Bach in a pizzeria or jazz club as in a concert hall, and is as likely to be performing in a small town in the American Midwest or South as in one of the major musical centers.
- Lynn Harrell
Lynn Harrell (born January 30, 1944) is an American classical cellist. Harrell was born in New York of musician parents; his father was the distinguished baritone Mack Harrell and his mother, Marjorie Fulton, was a violinist. At the age of eight he decided to learn to play the cello. When Lynn was 12, his family moved to Dallas, Texas, where Lynn studied with Lev Aronson.
- Steven Isserlis
Steven Isserlis (born December 19 1958, London) is one of the most prominent living cellists. He is notable for his diverse repertoire, distinctive sound and total command of phrasing. He studied at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and was also highly influneced by the great iconoclast of Russian cello playing, Daniil Shafran. Isserlis plays both as soloist and chamber musician and has rediscovered many previously neglected works.
- Pinchas Zukerman
Pinchas Zukerman is a noted Israeli violinist, violist, and conductor who was appointed Music Director of Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra in April 1998. Zukerman was born in Tel Aviv. He left for the United States and studied at the Juilliard School. He made his New York début in 1963. From 1980 to 1987 he was the director of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in Minnesota. He married actress Tuesday Weld in 1985 but they divorced in 1998.
- Pierre Fournier
Pierre Fournier (June 24, 1906 - January 8, 1986) was a French cellist who was called the "aristocrat of cellists," on account of his elegant musicianship and majestic sound. He was born in Paris, the son of a French Army general. His mother taught him to play the piano, but he had a mild case of polio as a child and lost dexterity in his feet and legs. Having difficulties with the piano pedals, he turned to the cello. He graduated from the Paris Conservatory at 17, …
- David Darling
David Darling (born March 3, 1941) is a cellist and composer. He has performed and recorded with artists such as Bobby McFerrin and Spyro Gyra in addition to putting out several solo and small ensemble albums as well as albums of his compositions. Born in Elkhart, Indiana, Darling began studying cello at 10 and continued on to earn bachelor's and master's degrees in music education from Indiana University.
- Mischa Maisky
Mischa Maisky (born January 10, 1948 in Riga) is a celebrated cellist who won 6th Prize at the Moscow International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1966. Maisky began studies with Mstislav Rostropovich at the Moscow Conservatory whilst pursuing a concert career throughout the Soviet Union. In 1970, he was imprisoned in a labor camp near Gorky for 18 months. After his release, he emigrated to Israel to avoid further persecution by the Soviet regime.
- Julian Lloyd Webber
Julian Lloyd Webber is a British cellist. He is the son of the composer William Lloyd Webber (some of whose pieces for cello he has recorded) and the younger brother of Andrew Lloyd Webber. The two brothers collaborated on the classical/rock recording Variations — based on Paganini's A minor Caprice for solo violin.
- Gregor Piatigorsky
Gregor Piatigorsky was a Ukrainian cellist well known in his time. Gregor Piatigorsky, or occasionally known as "Grisha," was born in Ekaterinoslav and studied violin and piano with his father as a child. After seeing and hearing the cello, he determined to become a cellist and constructed a play cello with two sticks. He was given a real cello when he was seven. He won a scholarship to the Moscow Conservatory, …
- Jacqueline du Pré
Jacqueline Mary du Pré, O.B.E. (January 26, 1945 - October 19, 1987), was a British cellist, today acknowledged as one of the greatest exponents of the instrument. She is particularly associated with the Elgar Cello Concerto in E Minor; her interpretation of this work has been described as "definitive" and "legendary."
- Heinrich Schiff
Heinrich Schiff is a noted Austrian cellist, much in demand as a soloist with the world's leading chamber ensembles and major orchestras. He is also an internationally renowned conductor. He studied cello with Tobias Kühne and André Navarra and made his solo debut in Vienna and London in 1971. He studied conducting with Swarovsky, and made his conducting debut in 1986. He plays the "Mara" Stradivarius (1711) and "Sleeping Beauty" made by Montagnana in Venice in 1739.
- Ralph Kirshbaum
Ralph Henry Kirshbaum (born April 4, 1946) is an American cellist currently living in England. During his career he has performed solos with major orchestras worldwide, won prizes in several international competitions, and recorded extensively.
- Arthur Russell
Charles Arthur Russell Jr. (1952 - April 4, 1992) was an American cellist, composer, singer, and disco artist. While he found the most success as a dance music artist, Russell's career bridged New York's downtown, rock, and dance music scenes; his collaborators ranged from Philip Glass to David Byrne to Nicky Siano. Relatively unknown during his life, a series of reissues and posthumous releases has raised his profile in recent years.
- Alban Gerhardt
Alban Gerhardt (1969-) is a German cellist. He has performed with many internationally known orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
- Leonard Rose
Leonard Rose (July 27, 1918 - November 16, 1984) is considered one of the greatest American cellists of the 20th century. Born in Washington, D.C., Rose took lessons from Walter Grossman, Frank Miller and Felix Salmond and after completing his studies at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music at age 20, he joined Arturo Toscanini's NBC Symphony Orchestra, and almost immediately became associate principal.
- Alisa Weilerstein
American cellist Alisa Weilerstein has attracted widespread attention for playing that combines a natural virtuosic command and technical precision with impassioned musicianship. At 26 years old, she is already a veteran on the classical music scene having performed with the nation's top orchestras, given recitals in music capitals throughout the U.S. and Europe, and having regularly appeared at prestigious festivals.
- Galina Vishnevskaya
Galina Pavlovna Vishnevskaya is a Russian soprano opera singer and recitalist who was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1966. Vishnevskaya was born in Leningrad. She made her professional stage debut in 1944 singing operetta. After a year studying with Vera Nikolayeva, she won a competition held by the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow (with Rachmaninoff's song "O, Do Not Grieve" and Verdi's aria "O patria mia" from "Aida") in 1952.
- Luigi Boccherini
Luigi Rodolfo Boccherini (February 19, 1743 - May 28, 1805) was a classical era composer and cellist from Italy, whose music retained a courtly and galante style while he matured somewhat apart from the major European musical centers. Boccherini is mostly known for one particular minuet from his String Quintet in E, Op. 13, No. 5, and the Cello Concerto in B flat major (G 482).
- Harvey Shapiro
Harvey Shapiro (b. 1911) is a New York-born American cellist of world renown.
- Zuill Bailey
Zuill Bailey is a world-renowned cellist, who frequently tours the U.S. He was born and raised in Prince William County, Virginia. Zuill studied under Loran Stephenson, Stephen Kates and Joel Krosnick. He attended the Juilliard Conservatory, and the Peabody Conservatory. Zuill plays a 1693 Matteo Goffriller cello, formerly owned by Mischa Schneider of the Budapest Quartet. Zuill currently serves as Professor of Cello at the University of Texas-El Paso, …
- David Geringas
David Geringas (born 1946) is a world-renowned cellist and conductor. In 1970 he won the Gold Medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition.
- Ernst Reijseger
Ernst Reijseger is a Dutch cellist and composer. He specializes in jazz, improvised music, and contemporary classical music and often gives solo concerts. He has worked with Louis Sclavis, Derek Bailey, Han Bennink, Misha Mengelberg, Gerry Hemingway, Yo-Yo Ma, Albert Mangelsdorff, Franco D'Andrea, Joëlle Léandre, Georg Gräwe, Trilok Gurtu, and Mola Sylla, and has done several world music projects working with musicians from Sardinia, Turkey, Iran, Senegal, and Argentina.
- Bernard Greenhouse
Bernard Greenhouse (born 1916) is a well-known cellist and one of the founding members of the Beaux Arts Trio. He started his professional studies with Felix Salmond at Juilliard when he was eighteen. After four years of study with Salmond, Greenhouse proceeded to move on to studies with Emanuel Feuermann, Diran Alexanian, Raya Garbousova and Pablo Casals. After finishing studies with Casals, Greenhouse went on to pursue a solo career for twelve years.
- Truls Mørk
Truls Otterbech Mørk is a Norwegian cellist. He was born in Bergen, Norway, the child of two professional musicians, his father a cellist and his mother a pianist. His mother began teaching him the piano when he was seven. He also played the violin, but soon switched to the cello, taking lessons from his father. Mørk started studying with Frans Helmerson at 17 at the renowned Edsberg Music Institute. An admirer of Mstislav Rostropovich and the Russian school of cello, …
- Giovanni Sollima
Giovanni Sollima is an Italian composer and cellist. He was born into a family of musicians and studied cello with Giovanni Perriera and composition with his father, Eliodoro Sollima, at the Conservatorio di Palermo, where he graduated with highest honors. He later studied with Antonio Janigro and Milko Kelemen at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart and at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg.
- Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach (20 June 1819 - 5 October 1880) was a French composer and cellist of the Romantic era and one of the originators of the operetta form. He was one of the most influential composers of popular music in Europe in the 19th century, and many of his works remain in the repertory. While his name remains most closely associated with the French operetta and the Second Empire, it is his one fully operatic masterpiece, Les contes d'Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann), …
- Aldo Parisot
Aldo Simoes Parisot (born September 30, 1920) is a Brazilian-born American cellist and cello teacher, was formerly a member of the Juilliard School faculty, and currently is serving as a professor of music at the Yale School of Music.
- Paul Tortelier
Paul Tortelier (March 21, 1914 - December 18, 1990) was a French cellist and composer. Tortelier was born in Paris, the son of a cabinet maker. He was encouraged to play the cello by his father and mother, and at 12 he entered the Paris Conservatoire. He won the first prize in cello at the conservatoire when he was 16, and then he took harmony classes under Jean Gallon. In 1935 Tortelier joined the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, and played with them until 1937.
- Rushad Eggleston
Rushad Eggleston (b. September 1979) is a cellist and member of the Grammy Award nominated bluegrass string quartet called The Fiddlers 4. Eggleston, a graduate of Carmel High School in Carmel, California, United States, first built his reputation in Monterey Bay Area circles as a member of the Youth Music Monterey orchestra. After competing for and being awarded a full scholarship, he attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.
- William Pleeth
William Pleeth was a British cellist and an eminent teacher of the cello. He is probably best known as the teacher of Jacqueline du Pré. Born in London to an Polish emigre family, Pleeth showed his talent as a cellist by age 7. By the time he was 15 years old, he had learned all the Bach Suites, all the Piatti Caprices, and 32 concertos, 24 of which he had memorized.
- John Barbirolli
Sir John Giovanni Battista Barbirolli, CH, was a British conductor and cellist. Barbirolli was particularly associated with the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, which he led for nearly three decades. He was also music director of the New York Philharmonic and the Houston Symphony Orchestra, and conducted many other orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
- Tom Cora
Tom Cora (born Thomas Henry Corra) (September 14, 1953 - April 9, 1998), was a United States cellist and composer, best known for his improvisational performances in the field of experimental jazz and rock. He recorded with John Zorn, Butch Morris and The Ex, and was a member of Curlew, Third Person and Skeleton Crew.
- Victor Herbert
Victor August Herbert (February 1 1859-May 26 1924) was a popular composer of light opera, and an accomplished cellist and conductor. He was a founder of th American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP).
- Daniel Müller-Schott
Daniel Müller-Schott is a German cellist. He works together with such renowned conductors as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Kurt Masur, Sakari Oramo and Sir André Previn. He is touring worldwide. At the start of 2006 there was the CD release of the Mozart Trios together with Anne-Sophie Mutter and Sir André Previn.
- Eugene Friesen
Eugene Friesen (b. 1952) is an American cellist and composer. He is a graduate of the Yale School of Music. He has been a member of the Paul Winter Consort since 1978, and performs with Howard Levy and Glen Velez as Trio Globo. He received a Grammy Award as a member of the Paul Winter Consort for the 1994 album "Spanish Angel". He also performs on cello and electric cello as "Celloman." He teaches at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, …
- Colin Carr
Colin Carr is a distinguished professor of cello currently at the Royal Academy of Music. Carr taught at the New England Conservatory in Boston for 16 years before taking up his current job at the Royal Academy of Music. In addition, he is also affiliated with the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He took second place in the international Rostropovich Cello Competition. Carr began playing at the age of five, and studied with Maurice Gendron.