Sunday (4/28) on the Los Angeles Times blog Culture Monster, Greg Braxton writes, “Janos Starker, a renowned concert cellist as well as a distinguished teacher and recording artist, has died. He was 88. Starker, who died Sunday in Bloomington, Ind., had been in terminal care for the last few weeks, according to reports from wire services. Indiana University President Michael McRobbie said Starker was ‘one of the greatest cellists who have ever lived’ and ‘one of the university’s true artistic giants.’ Starker had played principal cello in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for five seasons during the 1950s and had been a professor at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music since 1958. His cello seminars attracted students from all over the world. ‘I personally cannot perform without teaching, and I cannot teach without performing,’ Starker told the Chicago Tribune in 1993. ‘When you have to explain what you are doing, you discover what you are really doing.’ … He served as principal cello for the Dallas Symphony and then the Metropolitan Opera before joining the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1953.” He went on to an acclaimed career as a soloist, touring and recording widely.
Posted April 30, 2013
