David Soyer (February 24, 1923February 25, 2010) was an American cellist.
He was born in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
and began playing the piano at the age of nine. At 11, he started the cello. One of his first teachers was
Diran Alexanian
Diran Alexanian ( hy, Տիրան Ալեքսանեան) (April 12, 1881, Constantinople – 1954, Chamonix, France) was an Armenian cello teacher and one of the world's greatest virtuoso cellists.
Early life
He started his studies in music und ...
. Later on he studied with
Emanuel Feuermann
Emanuel Feuermann (November 22, 1902 – May 25, 1942) was an internationally celebrated cellist in the first half of the 20th century.
Life
Feuermann was born in 1902 in Kolomyja, Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Kolomyia, Ukraine) to ...
and
Pablo Casals. He debuted with the
Philadelphia Orchestra under
Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy (born Jenő Blau; November 18, 1899 – March 12, 1985) was a Hungarian-born American conductor and violinist, best known for his association with the Philadelphia Orchestra, as its music director. His 44-year association with ...
in 1942, playing
Ernest Bloch's ''
Schelomo
''Schelomo: Rhapsodie Hébraïque for Violoncello and Orchestra'' was the final work of composer Ernest Bloch's ''Jewish Cycle''. ''Schelomo'', which was written in 1915 to 1916, premiered on May 3, 1917, played by cellist Hans Kindler. Artur Boda ...
''.
Chamber music was a special love of his. He was a founding member of the
Guarneri Quartet
The Guarneri Quartet was an American string quartet founded in 1964 at the Marlboro Music School and Festival. It was admired for its rich, warm, complex tone and its bold, dramatic interpretations of the quartet literature, with a particular aff ...
in 1964 and played with them until retiring from the quartet in 2002. As a member of the Guarneri he collaborated with many of the world's most famous classical musicians, including
Leonard Rose
Leonard Joseph Rose (July 27, 1918 – November 16, 1984) was an American cellist and pedagogue.
Biography
Rose was born in Washington, D.C.; his parents were Jewish immigrants, his father from Bragin, Belarus, and his mother from Kyiv, ...
, the
Budapest String Quartet
The Budapest String Quartet was a string quartet in existence from 1917 to 1967. It originally consisted of three Hungarians and a Dutchman; at the end, the quartet consisted of four Russians. A number of recordings were made for HMV/Victor t ...
,
Pinchas Zukerman
Pinchas Zukerman ( he, פנחס צוקרמן, born 16 July 1948) is an Israeli-American violinist, violist and conductor.
Life and career
Zukerman was born in Tel Aviv, to Jewish parents and Holocaust survivors Yehuda and Miriam Lieberman Zuk ...
, and
Arthur Rubinstein. He gave the New York premieres of the Solo Cello Sonatas by
Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály (; hu, Kodály Zoltán, ; 16 December 1882 – 6 March 1967) was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is well known internationally as the creator of the Kodály method of music edu ...
and
George Crumb. With David Tudor he premiered
Earle Brown
Earle Brown (December 26, 1926 – July 2, 2002) was an American composer who established his own formal and notational systems. Brown was the creator of "open form," a style of musical construction that has influenced many composers since ...
's Music for Cello and Piano. Before joining the quartet he played in various venues including the Navy Band (**) during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
and later with the
NBC Symphony Orchestra under the direction of
Arturo Toscanini.
Soyer was on the faculty of the
Curtis Institute of Music, the
Manhattan School of Music, and the
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...
. Many of his students, such as
Ronald Thomas and
Peter Wiley
Peter Wiley (born 1955) is a cellist and cello teacher. He entered the Curtis Institute of Music at 13 years of age, where he studied with David Soyer. He was then appointed principal cellist of the Cincinnati Symphony at age 20, after one year ...
, have gone on to have successful performing careers.
He taught many of today's most prominent contemporary cellists and musicians. He spent many summers teaching and performing at the
Marlboro Music Festival
The Marlboro Music School and Festival is a retreat for advanced classical training and musicianship held for seven weeks each summer in Marlboro, Vermont, in the United States. Public performances are held each weekend while the school is in ses ...
in Vermont.
He received an honorary degree from
Binghamton University.
Soyer died at his home in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
on February 25, 2010, one day after his 87th birthday.
References
David Soyer, Cellist, Is Dead at 87 New York Times
* The Art of Quartet Playing: The Guarneri String Quartet in Conversation With David Blum, Cornell University Press, 1986,
Binghamton University alumni
1923 births
2010 deaths
Juilliard School faculty
American classical cellists
American music educators
Jewish classical musicians
Jewish American classical musicians
Manhattan School of Music faculty
Musicians from Philadelphia
Classical musicians from Pennsylvania
Guarneri Quartet members
20th-century classical musicians
21st-century American Jews
20th-century cellists
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