DAVID FINCKEL

2008/ 09 Medium Biography (592 Words)


Cellist David Finckel is one of the world’s most unique and visible performers. He has been called a “world class soloist” by The Denver Post, and was hailed by Germany’s Nordwest Zeitung as “one of the top ten, if not top five, cellists in the world today.”

Highlights of recent seasons have included recitals throughout North America with pianist Wu Han; the world premiere performance of Gabriela Lena Frank’s Compadrazgo with the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra (Columbus, OH); a third appearance at London’s Wigmore Hall; a performance of André Previn’s Cello Sonata at a special 92nd Street Y concert honoring the composer; the world premiere of Augusta Read Thomas’s cello concerto, Ritual Incantations, at the Aspen Music Festival; and his debut with the Festival Orchestra in Bloch’s Schelomo, under Sergiu Comissiona. Additional solo and chamber appearances include the Aspen Music Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, SummerFest La Jolla, and Music@Menlo; and over one hundred concerts worldwide as cellist of the Grammy Award winning Emerson String Quartet. Last season, with pianist Wu Han, David Finckel gave the world premiere of Pierre Jalbert’s Cello Sonata at the Aspen Music Festival. A new work for cello and piano by award-winning composer George Tsontakis is scheduled to be performed by Wu Han and David Finckel during 2008-2009 season. Recent appearances as orchestral soloist include Elgar’s Cello Concerto Op. 85 with the Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, Shostakovich’s First Concerto and the Beethoven Triple Concerto (with Wu Han and violinist Margaret Batjer) with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, as well as performances and recordings of the Dvorák Concerto and Augusta Read Thomas’s Ritual Incantations with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, and John Harbison’s Cello Concerto with the Albany Symphony.

David Finckel’s expansive musical activities include the launch of ArtistLed, classical music’s first musician directed, Internet based recording company, which, in 2007, celebrated its tenth year. All ten ArtistLed recordings, including Beethoven’s complete works for piano and cello, have received critical acclaim and are available via the company’s Web site at www.artistled.com. The Denver Post described ArtistLed as “a classical music breakthrough.” In Time magazine, Terry Teachout hailed ArtistLed’s Tchaikovsky disc as “a performance that ranks among the great chamber music recordings of the postwar era.” The ArtistLed recording, “Russian Classics,” featuring works by Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich, received BBC Music Magazine’s coveted “Editor's Choice”. The two most recent additions to the ArtistLed catalogue feature David Finckel’s recording of the Dvorák Concerto and Augusta Read Thomas’s Ritual Incantations (world premiere recording), and Wu Han’s first full-length solo recording, “Russian Recital”, featuring works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, and Scriabin. This season, ArtistLed releases its eleventh album, a recording of the Schubert piano trios, featuring David Finckel, Wu Han, and violinist Philip Setzer.

David Finckel and Wu Han have served as Artistic Directors of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 2004. In recent years, they have become widely recognized for their initiatives in expanding audiences for classical music, and for guiding the careers of countless young musicians. They are also the founders and Artistic Directors of Music@Menlo, a chamber music festival in Silicon Valley that has garnered international acclaim since its inception in 2003. Prior to launching Music@Menlo, Wu Han and David Finckel served for three seasons as Artistic Directors of SummerFest La Jolla.
David Finckel teaches during the summer at the Aspen Music Festival and School, and has served as a regular faculty member of the Issac Stern Chamber Music Workshops in New York, Jerusalem, Paris and Japan. He lives in New York with his wife, pianist Wu Han, and their fourteen-year-old daughter Lilian.