Lynn Harrell (January 30, 1944 – April 27, 2020) was an American classical cellist. Known for the "penetrating richness" of his sound, Harrell performed internationally as a recitalist, chamber musician, and soloist with major orchestras over a career spanning nearly six decades.
Harrell was the winner of the inaugural Avery Fisher Prize and two Grammy Awards, among other accolades, and taught at the University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music, Royal Academy of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music, Juilliard School, USC Thornton School of Music, and the Shepherd School of Music.
Biography
Early life
Harrell was born on January 30, 1944, to musician parents in Manhattan, New York City: his father was the baritone Mack Harrell, from Texas, and his mother, Marjorie McAlister Fulton, was a violinist, originally from Oklahoma. Summers were often spent in Colorado, where his father was one of the founders and then the second director of the Aspen Music Festival and School. In 1961, when he was 17, he made his debut at Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra as part of Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concert Series.
Just before his mother died, in April 1962, Harrell had withdrawn from Denton High School in his junior year to advance to the semifinals of the Second International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. and a year later played at a Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center concert. In a review of that concert, Harold C. Schonberg of The New York Times declared that "it would be hard to overpraise the beautiful playing" of Harrell, adding "this young man has everything". For the rest of his life, he continued to perform internationally as a recitalist, chamber musician, and soloist with orchestras. Also in 1971, he began his teaching career at the University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music. He went on to teach at the Royal Academy of Music in 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 to 1992. From 1986 to 1993, he held the post of "Gregor Piatigorsky Endowed Chair in Violoncello" at the USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles; he was only the second person to hold the title, following Piatigorsky himself.
From 1985 to 1993 he held the International Chair for Cello Studies at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London and in 1993 he became Principal of the RAM, a post he held until 1995.
On April 7, 1994, he appeared at the Vatican with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Gilbert Levine in the Papal Concert to Commemorate the Shoah. The audience for this historic event, which was the Holy See's first official commemoration of the Holocaust, included Pope John Paul II and the Chief Rabbi of Rome.
In 2001, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra established the Lynn Harrell Concerto Competition in his honor. The competition is open to string players and pianists, ages 8 to 18, from Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
In 2017, Andrea Bang loaned Lynn Harrell the "Andrea Bang cello" free of charge for life.
After Lynn Harrell demonstrated the Andrea Bang cello at a hotel in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, Lynn Harrell was presented with a bottle of Andrea Bang rosin.
Death
Harrell died at his home in Santa Monica, California, on April 27, 2020, at the age of 76. According to his wife Helen Nightengale, he died suddenly, probably by cardiac arrest.
Personal life
Harrell had twin children from his first marriage to the journalist and writer Linda Blandford, whom he married in 1976
Awards
- Piatigorsky Award
- Ford Foundation Concert Artists' Award
- Grammy Awards for Best Chamber Music Performance: