Harvey Shapiro

This series of videos is dedicated to the great artist, cellist and teacher Harvey Shapiro (1911 -2007). Read a critical acclaim of his life here: http://www.jameskreger.com/article5.htm

We filmed our mastercourses in Salem (Germany) and Engelberg (Switzerland) in order to give the students the opportunity to watch their lessons later again without being the center of attention.

Today these recordings are rare documents of Harvey Shapiro’s playing in sound and vision. His playing may be called unique and unrivaled in terms of tone-quality, phrasing, and sliding. The preconditions of these parameters were his unerring ear, his immense musicality and his all-embracing knowledge of music in general. Countless times he overwhelmed and inspired us (students) with demonstrations of breathtaking beauty and adorable statements in a musical language which we surprisingly could understand suddenly.

All of his former students will be (sentimentally) re-inspired by these recordings and those who have not met him personally can experience a concept and a quality of cello-playing, which is always worth to strive for with all efforts available.