Frans Helmerson (born 1945) is a Swedish cellist, pedagogue, and conductor.

Biography

Helmerson was born in 1945 and by the age of 8 began playing

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

. Later on, he studied with Guido Vecchi in Götheborg, Giuseppe Selmi in Rome, and with

William Pleeth William Pleeth OBE (12 January 1916 – 6 April 1999) was a well-known British cellist and an eminent teacher, who became widely known as the teacher of Jacqueline du Pré. Biography Early years William Pleeth was born in London. His ...

in London. His first concert was in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

after which he went on to travel throughout

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. He has performed under many conductors, including Sir Colin Davis, Maxim Shostakovich, Neemi Järvi, Evgeny Svetlanov, Gennadi Roshdestvensky, Kurt Sanderling, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Rostropovich, Herbert Blomstedt, Seiji Ozawa, Yuri Temirkanov und Esa-Pekka Salonen and many others. In 2002 he founded the Michelangelo String Quartet in which he regularly performs worldwide, together with Mihaela Martin,

Daniel Austrich Daniel Austrich (born 1984) is a Russian classical musician, who is active as a conductor, violinist, violist, and a pedagogue. Early life and education Austrich was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. He studied with Alla Aranovskaya in St.Petersbur ...

and

Nobuko Imai , is a Japanese classical violist with an extensive career as soloist and chamber musician. Since 1988 she has played a 1690 Andrea Guarneri instrument. Biography Imai began her musical training at the age of six. She began studying at Tokyo' ...

. Helmerson for many years has taught at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, as well as at Escuela Superior Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid. He was also guest professor at the

Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin The in Berlin, Germany, is one of the leading universities of music in Europe. It was established in East Berlin in 1950 as the () because the older (now the Berlin University of the Arts) was in West Berlin. After the death of one of its fir ...

, and currently teaches at the Barenboim–Said Akademie in Berlin and the

Kronberg Academy The Kronberg Academy is an academy of chamber music based in Kronberg, Hesse, Germany. It was founded in 1993 by Raimund Trenkler, who has served since then as its chairman and artistic director. The academy's initial focus was on the cello and ...

in Frankfurt. His recording of the ''Dvorak Concerto'' at the BIS Records label was praised by critics as the best classical recording available on the market. Also to a great critical acclaim, he released two cello concertos by

Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throughout his life as a major compo ...

, along with conductor

Valery Polyansky Valery Kuzmich Polyansky (Russian: ''Валерий Кузьмич Полянский''; born April 19, 1949 in Moscow) is a Russian orchestral and choral conductor. He is a professor of the Moscow Conservatory, People's Artist of Russia (1996), ...

and the Russian State Symphony Capella.

References

1945 births Living people Swedish cellists Swedish conductors (music) Male conductors (music) 21st-century conductors (music) Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin faculty 21st-century Swedish male musicians 21st-century cellists {{Cellist-stub