Lynn Harrell

Instrumentalists — Cello

Manager: R. Douglas Sheldon
Additional Management: Denise A. Pineau
Management Territory: Worldwide

“Cellist Lynn Harrell gave an assured and virtuosic performance, rendering the score’s more declarative moments with the same unflagging confidence he brings to Romantic solo repertoire. The crowd’s reception went well beyond the polite applause sometimes given to new scores.” —Boston Globe, on Premiere of Cello Concerto No.3 by Augusta Reed Thomas, March 2013

"This was a performance of patience and magnanimity, animated when it had to be but chiefly attentive to Schubert's leisurely way of building big statements -- just the right sort for a splendid new concert hall.” —Indianapolis Star

"Harrell responds both to the famous elegiac element in [the Elgar Concerto] and to the robust, sinewy and ruddy-cheeked side, both aspects joined on a long, singing through-line. From the opening gesture, Harrell embraced us and didn’t put us down, gently but with a flourish, until the end. His playing was bold, imaginative, and surpassingly sensitive…fully human and rich in detail” —The Boston Globe

About

Lynn Harrell’s presence is felt throughout the musical world. A consummate soloist, chamber musician, recitalist, conductor and teacher, his work throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia has placed him in the highest echelon of today’s performing artists.

Mr. Harrell is a frequent guest of the world’s greatest orchestras including Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, London, Munich, Dresden, Leipzig, Berlin, Tonhalle and Israel, collaborating with James Levine, Sir Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta . . . , Sir Simon Rattle, Leonard Slatkin, Yuri Temirkanov and Michael Tilson Thomas, and in chamber music concerts with Vladimir Ashkenazy, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Yuri Bashmet, Andre Previn and Pinchas Zukerman. His critically acclaimed extensive discography of over 30 releases ranges from Bach to Walton, with several Grammy Award winners and world premieres amongst them. Mr. Harrell’s experience as an educator is wide and varied across the world.

Highlights from an extensive discography of more than 30 recordings include the complete Bach Cello Suites (London/Decca), the world-premiere recording of Victor Herbert’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields led by Marriner (London/Decca), the Walton Concerto with Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (EMI), and the Donald Erb Concerto with Slatkin and the Saint Louis Symphony (New World). Together with Itzhak Perlman and Vladimir Ashkenazy, Mr. Harrell was awarded two Grammy Awards – in 1981 for the Tchaikovsky Piano Trio and in 1987 for the complete Beethoven Piano Trios (both Angel/EMI). Also with Mr. Ashkenazy and Pinchas Zukerman, Mr. Harrell recorded the Schubert Trios (London/Decca), released in February 2000 and the Brahms Trios (EMI) in 1994. His May 2000 recording with Nigel Kennedy, “Duos for Violin & Cello,” received unanimous critical acclaim (EMI). More recently, Mr. Harrell recorded Tchaikovsky’s Variations for Cello and Orchestra on a Rococo Theme, Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2, and Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Gerard Schwarz conducting (Classico).

In June 2010, along with his wife violinist Helen Nightengale, he founded the HEARTbeats Foundation, a 501(c) charity. Based in Los Angeles, the HEARTbeats Foundation strives to help children in need harness the power of music to better cope with, and recover from, the extreme challenges of poverty and conflict. Mr. Harrell serves as a board officer and Artist Ambassador, a capacity that allows him to work directly with children in need.

Mr. Harrell plays a 2008 Dungey cello. He makes his home in Santa Monica, CA.

Learn More