Emmanuel Feldman, Cellist
Hailed by John Williams, Grammy award winning composer and conductor as "an outstanding cellist and truly dedicated artist", American cellist Emmanuel Feldman has emerged as one of the most innovative cellists of his generation. Known for his intense soulful playing and a broad range of repertoire and styles, he enjoys an active career as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, champion of new music and educator.
From newly commissioned premieres to collaborations with dance and poetry to performing the classic cello repertoire, Mr. Feldman has joined forces with such artists as the Mark Morris Dance Group, Rebecca Rice Dance, Aurea Ensemble and renowned pop and jazz artist, Bobby McFerrin creating a new and unexpected concert experience. He has performed throughout Europe and North America in concerts at the Franz Liszt Academy (Budapest), Vienna’s Altes Rathaus, Pablo Casals Festival (Prades), Sarlat Festival (France), Schlesswig Holstein Musik Festival (Germany) and has appeared as soloist with the Boston Pops, Nashville Chamber Orchestra, New England String Ensemble, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Merrimack Valley Philharmonic, Greensboro Festival Orchestra, and Boston Philharmonic and many others. Following his debut on the Bank of America Marquee Celebrity Series, Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe wrote “Emmanuel Feldman was superb in the Bach Solo Suites”.
An avid chamber player, Mr. Feldman has collaborated with pianists Jorge Bolet, Robert Levin, Gilbert Kalish, Joy Cline Phinney, Yehudi Wyner, Randall Hodgkinson; instrumentalists Paul Newbauer, Richard Stoltzman, Jennifer Frautschi, Karen Gomyo, Lynn Chang, Marcus Thompson, Borromeo String Quartet, members of the Lydian String Quartet and was invited to participate in the Marlboro Music Festival. He recently performed with Rockport Music Festival artistic director and pianist David Deveau in an opening night performance that is available on Instant Encore as a podcast. As co-founder of Cello e Basso (formerly the Axiom Duo) with French double bassist Pascale Delache-Feldman, they have concertized internationally at such distinguished venues as the Phillips Collection (Washington, DC), Jordan Hall (Boston), Sanders Theater (Cambridge), Franz Liszt Museum (Budapest), Radio France Paris, commissioned more than a dozen new works and released their first CD on Synergy Classics in 2002. Mr Feldman has also recorded chamber works for the Naxos, Arsis, Parma, MMC and Zimbel labels.
He has also appeared frequently on radio and television broadcasts including WQXR New York, WCRB and WGBH Boston, Radio France and local cable television. His discography includes a solo album with pianist Mariann Abraham with music by Kodaly, Gershwin and Ligeti on ZenCD and a CD of the music of Pamela Marshall with mezzo-soprano D'Anna Fortunato on Clique Track. His CD on Albany Records as soloist in “Rider on The Plains” featuring Virgil Thomson’s Cello Concerto was nominated for a 2008 Grammy award for producer Blanton Alspaugh (producer of the year) and was hailed as an “excellent new recording…the concerto sounds exhilarating in this bracing and confident performance” by the New York Times (Anthony Tommasini).
A consumate advocate of new music, he has given the premieres and first recordings of cello works by composers Richard Danielpour, Michael Gandolfi, John Harbison, Aaron Kernis, David Diamond, Gunther Schuller, Charles Fussell, Jan Swafford, Andrew List, Yakov Yakoulov, John McDonald, Gilbert Trout and many others. Emmanuel's own musical compositions have been performed by Cello e Basso, the New England String Ensemble and the Warebrook Contemporary Music Festival.
Mr. Feldman is on the cello faculty at New England Conservatory, Tufts University and has a busy private studio in the Boston area. He has taught at the Yellow Barn Music Festival, Heifetz Institute, New York Summer Music Festival, Summit Music Festival, Hartwick Music Festival and Killington Music Festival and was a resident artist for the Chappaquiddick Music Festival. He is often a guest artist at schools and universities for cello and chamber music master classes.
Emmanuel Feldman was born to a large musical family and began studying the cello at age 12 and gave his first solo performances with orchestra at age 14. Later he won the Minnie Rose Award honoring the wife of renowned cellist, Leonard Rose. He studied the cello with Orlando Cole at the Curtis Institute and chamber music with Felix Galimir, Karen Tuttle and Jascha Brodsky. After graduating from Curtis he received the Sarah Ann Leinbach and Lillian Norton Tanglewood Music Center Fellowship and was awarded a scholarship to study at the Paris Conservatoire Supérieur. He has also studied with cellists Bernard Greenhouse, David Finckel, William Stokking, Stephen Geber, Igor Gavrytch and Amy Camus. For more information please visit www.emmanuelfeldman.com.