Gábor Rejtő, also known as Gabor Rejto (23 January 1916 – 26 June 1987), was a Hungarian

cellist The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

who performed with various artists and chamber music ensembles in the 20th century.

Biography

Early life

Rejtő was born in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

into a Jewish family. His first cello teacher was Frederick Teller, a local teacher whose ideas, for the time, were exceptionally forward-looking. At sixteen, Rejtő entered the Academy of Music under Adolf Schiffer (a pupil of and later assistant to David Popper), and two years later, with his Artist’s Diploma, he began his European concert career.

Education

From the age of 20, Rejtő studied with

Pablo Casals Pau Casals i Defilló (Catalan: ; 29 December 187622 October 1973), known in English as Pablo Casals,Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

and then in Prades. Casals had revolutionized the approach to the cello and when he worked with Rejtő, they spent almost a month on just basic technique. Rejtő then played in concerts throughout Europe, with major symphony orchestras such as those in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, and

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, as well as in solo recitals.

Career

In 1952, Rejtő and

Yaltah Menuhin Yaltah Menuhin (7 October 1921 – 9 June 2001) was an American-born British pianist, artist and poet. Early life Yaltah was born in San Francisco, the youngest of three extraordinarily musically gifted children. Her siblings were Yehudi Menuhin ...

undertook a tour of New Zealand together. Over a period of five weeks, they gave twenty-five concerts to great critical acclaim. Rejto was a resident of the United States from 1939 until his death. During his career, he was on the faculty of the

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

and Eastman Schools of Music. From 1954 to his death, he was professor of cello at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

. He was also one of the cellists in the

Paganini Quartet The Paganini Quartet was an American string quartet founded by cellist Robert Maas and violinist Henri Temianka in 1946. The quartet drew its name from the fact that all four of its instruments, made by Antonio Stradivari (1644–1737), had ...

and the

Hungarian Quartet The Hungarian String Quartet was a musical ensemble of world renown, particularly famous for its performances of quartets by Beethoven and Bartók. The quartet was founded in Budapest in 1935 (as the New Hungarian Quartet) and was disbanded in 197 ...

, and was a founding member of the

Alma Trio The Alma Trio was a classical piano trio established in 1942 at the ''Alma Estate'' of Yehudi Menuhin in Los Gatos, California. Original members The original founding members of the Alma Trio were Roman Totenberg, violin; Gabor Rejto, cello ...

, a piano trio, and remained with that ensemble from 1942 until it disbanded in 1976; in the early 1980s, the trio reformed, with Rejto again as the cellist. Rejto taught for a number of years at the

Music Academy of the West The Music Academy of the West is a summer classical music training program in Montecito, California, and festival with performances in the County of Santa Barbara. Overview The academy annually enrolls 136 pre-professional musicians in their ...

summer program for gifted students, where his

master class ''Master Class'' is a 1995 play by American playwright Terrence McNally, presented as a fictional master class by opera singer Maria Callas near the end of her life, in the 1970s. The play features incidental vocal music by Giuseppe Verdi, Giac ...

es were extremely popular, not just with cellists. His experience in chamber music attracted many students to his cello workshops held throughout the United States. In 1972, Rejtő was chosen ''Artist Teacher of the Year'' at the

American String Teachers Association The American String Teachers Association (ASTA) is a professional organization for bowed string music teachers based in the United States. It is the largest organization in the U.S. for string teachers. ASTA serves teachers and students in all are ...

's 25th Anniversary Conference.

Family

Rejtő's son, Peter Rejto, is a cellist and a former faculty member at the

Oberlin Conservatory The Oberlin Conservatory of Music is a private music conservatory of Oberlin College, a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio. It was founded in 1865 and is the second oldest conservatory and oldest continually operating conservatory in ...

. He was a founding member of the Los Angeles Piano Quartet. Gábor Rejtő's daughter, Nika S. Rejto, is a jazz flutist. She released an album entitled ''Teazing Socrates'' in 2006, dedicated to her late father.

Published mentions and biographies

cited in ''The Great Cellists'' by Margaret Campbell

References

External links

Alibris Classical Music - CDs by Gabor Rejto

The Los Angeles Piano Quartet

Nika Rejto
Gabor Rejto students

Stephen Geber

Stephen Balderston

Jeffrey Solow
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rejto, Gabor 1916 births 1987 deaths Hungarian classical cellists Manhattan School of Music faculty Hungarian music educators American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Jewish classical musicians 20th-century Hungarian classical musicians 20th-century cellists