Program Books/David Finckel
A headshot image of David Finckel, a white man with light brown hair, wearing a brown suit looking into the camera.

David Finckel

cellist

Cellist David Finckel’s dynamic musical career has included performances around the world in the roles of recitalist, chamber artist, and orchestral soloist. The first American student of Mstislav Rostropovich, he was winner of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s junior and senior divisions, resulting in two performances with the orchestra. He joined the Emerson String Quartet in 1979, with whom—over 34 seasons—he garnered nine Grammy Awards and the Avery Fisher Prize. Finckel’s quartet performances and recordings include quartet cycles of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Dvořák, Brahms, Bartók, and Shostakovich, as well as collaborative masterpieces and commissioned works.

In 1997, Finckel and Wu Han founded ArtistLed, the first internet-based, artist-controlled classical recording label. ArtistLed’s catalog of more than 20 releases includes the standard literature for cello and piano, plus works composed for the duo by composers including George Tsontakis, Gabriela Lena Frank, Bruce Adolphe, Lera Auerbach, Edwin Finckel, Augusta Read Thomas, and Pierre Jalbert, and Finckel’s orchestral recordings include both the Dvořák and Harbison concertos.

Artistic Co-Director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Finckel also co-founded Music@Menlo in 2003, an innovative summer chamber music festival in Silicon Valley.

Finckel taught extensively with the late Isaac Stern in America, Israel, and Japan. He is currently a professor at both the Juilliard School and Stony Brook University, and oversees both CMS’ Bowers Program and Music@Menlo’s Chamber Music Institute. Passionately dedicated to education for musicians of all ages and experience, he has developed a special Resource section of his website (davidfinckelandwuhan.com/resource) to provide, at no cost, a wealth of guidance for students on both music study and careers, as well as invaluable information for arts organizations and individuals on every aspect of concert presenting. Finckel’s Cello Talks—100 online lessons on cello technique—are viewed by an international audience of musicians (cellotalks.com).

Along with pianist Wu Han, Finckel was the recipient of Musical America’s 2012 Musicians of the Year Award.