Starker, János
Starker, János
Starker, János, renowned Hungarian-born American cellist and pedagogue; b. Budapest, July 5, 1924. He made his first public appearance when he was only 6 and at 7 studied cello with Adolf Cziffer at the Budapest Academy of Music and made his solo debut there at the age of 11. After graduating, he served as first cellist of the Budapest Opera orch. (1945–46), then emigrated to the U.S. in 1948. He became a naturalized American citizen in 1954. He held the positions of first cellist in the Dallas Sym. Orch. (1948–49), the Metropolitan Opera Orch. in N.Y. (1949–53), and the Chicago Sym. Orch. (1953–58). Subsequently he embarked upon a solo career. In 1958 he was appointed a prof. of music at the Ind. Univ. School of Music in Bloomington, where he was named Distinguished Prof. of Music in 1965. His 75th birthday was celebrated with a gala concert on Sept. 14, 1999, with Starker as a soloist in the Brahms Double Concerto with the Ind. Univ. Phil. in Bloomington conducted by Rostropovich. As a recitalist, he achieved renown in performances of Bach’s unaccompanied cello suites. He also devoted much attention to modern music, and promoted cello works of Kodály and gave first performances of works by Messiaen, Peter Mennin, Miklós Rozsa, and others. He pubI. An Organized Method of String Playing (1961).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire