Lynn Harrell

American cellist Lynn Harrell was a deeply thoughtful yet urgently spontaneous musician who excelled equally as soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player, and teacher/mentor. Born in 1944 in Manhattan, he studied with Leonard Rose at the Juilliard School and then Orlando Cole at the Curtis Institute. He looked set for a solo career, but losing both (musical) parents in quick succession during his teenage years left him feeling in need of an alternative family, so between 1964 and 1971 he played principal cello with the greatest distinction under George Szell at the Cleveland Orchestra. Rave notices following a Lincoln Center recital with conductor/pianist James Levine led directly to the first of more than 80 recordings, initially with RCA and then (mostly) Decca and EMI/Warner. His outstanding musical partnership with pianist/conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy is highlighted by probingly sensitive yet exhilarating accounts of Dvorak’s Cello Concerto (rec. 1982 with the Philharmonia Orchestra) and Rachmaninov’s Cello Sonata (rec. 1984). Harrell died in 2020, aged 76.