The Cello Guild Grand Opening
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Grand Opening Sale: 50% Off All Courses Through 30 November
New classes – plus a chance to earn a free Cello Guild sticker! We launched our new Cello Guild site late on Wednesday, but sometime on Thursday, we experienced some technical difficulties. Fortunately, it is up and running again, and we extended the sale by two days to make up for our downtime.
If you have any difficulties registering for classes (please register before purchasing – everything seems to work well that way), please don’t panic. Simply contact us and let us know the problem, and we will take care of it – and send you a free sticker for helping us!
Our classes are half-price through the 30th!
- An Introduction to the Celtic Cello – by Clíodhna Ní Aodáin
- Making a Goritzki Bow Foam – by Nancy Green
- Cello Geography: Mapping the Fingerboard – by Jonathan Simmons
- Fret Not, Dear Cellist – Venturing Beyond First: 2nd and 4th Positions – by Erica Lessie
- Fret Not, Dear Cellist – Moving on Up: 5th and 6th Positions – by Erica Lessie
Carol of the Bells Around the World
Join today! Submission Deadline Extended 28 November (11 PM EST)
We invite cellists of all levels to join us in playing the Carol of the Bells to show your commitment to peace and your support for Ukraine.
Ukrainian cellist Vlad Primakov has arranged Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych’s 1914 piece, “Carol of the Bells,” based on the Ukrainian folk chant “Shchedryk” for three cellos and six cellos. There is also an unaccompanied version. The parts are free to download but are not intended for resale.
Like our Ukrainian National Anthem Cello Project, it is free to participate in this project, but we encourage you to make a donation to the charity of your choice in support of Ukraine. (Vlad has recommended a charity.)
Register for the project here.
Online Concerts
28 November 1 PM GMT
Cellist Andrei Ioniţă and Pianist Naoko Sonoda – Beethoven, Britten and Webern at Wigmore Hall
Cellist Andrei Ioniţă
This concert will be live-streamed on the Wigmore Hall website in HD. The video will be available on demand for 90 days after the date of the broadcast.
Click here for more information.
2 December 8 PM NST
Online Concert- Masterworks 2: Kaleidoscope – Cellist Bryan Cheng
The Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra presents Masterworks 2: Kaleidoscope with special guest, Bryan Cheng, cello. Bryan is an accomplished cellist and was recent winner of the 2022 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium. The concert conducted by Marc David, features: Kaleidoscope by Mercure; Concerto for Cello No. 2 by Saint-Saëns; Élégie by Fauré; and, Symphony in D by Franck.
Following recent prize-winning successes at some of the world’s most prestigious international competitions, including Queen Elisabeth, Concours de Genève, and Paulo, Canadian-born, Berlin-based cellist Bryan Cheng has established himself as one of the most compelling young artists on the classical music scene. He made his sold-out Carnegie Hall recital debut at age 14, his Elbphilharmonie debut aged 20 with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (Joshua Weilerstein), and in 2022 was the first cellist to be awarded the coveted Prix Yves Paternot in recognition of the Verbier Festival Academy’s most promising and accomplished musician.
He has released a trilogy of albums on German label audite—Russian Legends (2019), Violonchelo del fuego (2018), and Violoncelle français (2016)—which has been critically-acclaimed by The Times (UK), Süddeutsche Zeitung, ORF Radio (Austria), WCRB Classical Radio Boston, and BBC Radio Scotland, among others.
Bryan plays the “Dubois” Antonio Stradivarius cello, Cremona, 1699 graciously provided to him by Canimex Inc. from Drummondville (Québec). He is a recipient of the Deutschlandstipendium and has been supported by the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation with generous multiyear scholarships.
Click here to purchase tickets and get more information.
Online Programs and Events
27 November 5 PM GMT
London Cello Society – Bach in Colours, Presenter Ulrich Heinen
Ulrich Heinen’s online LCS presentation, Bach in Colours, looks at Bach’s Cello Suites from a totally novel perspective. He writes “The Cello Suites are subtitled ‘senza basso’ (without bass), indicating the unusual fact that there is no separate continuo part. Instead, the bass is an integral part of the composition itself, most of the time defined by the lowest notes of chords and arpeggios. The listener’s ear tends to remember these notes from each passage to the next. It subconsciously connects them to create the illusion of a continuous bass voice. However, in some places the bass is entirely missing and left to our imagination. In these incidents the bass voice could be compared to a river, which – in rare and special places – runs mysteriously and invisibly underground.” Join us as Uli lifts the lid on an aspect of these works which most cellists will never have considered before!
Ulrich Heinen was born in 1946 in Ittenbach near Bonn, Germany. He studied at the Cologne Conservatoire under Siegfried Palm and at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, USA under Leonard Rose. He won several national and international competitions: First prize in the Cello Competition of German Musikhochschulen (Frankfurt), the Rostropovich Competition in La Rochelle, France, and the Vittorio Gui Competition in Florence, Italy.
Click here for more information and tickets. You must register ahead of time. Non-members also need tickets.
3 December 2022 | 6:00 PM–8:15 PM GMT
All About My Bow – Cellist Catherine Black
Our bow is our voice. We want it to breathe, speak, dance, sing and emote. This is an infinite subject but we do need to start somewhere! I feel we learn best with clear explanation, demonstration, focus and experimentation.
We will explore in varied ways, how our bow use can become increasingly natural to us – to become truly, an extension of your arm and hand. In going slowly and in detail, you will more truly find your own voice and feel able to express yourself more fully and authentically as a cellist & musician.
This series will build your understanding in stages. Some classes may be repeated too.
The instrument we play is large and physical and we need to know how to use energy well and understand movement because sound follows the movement.
I will send you materials for the class ahead of the day and then afterwards I will send documents that help you consolidate and develop our work. The groups will be small enough that we will be able to work individually too to check things are understood.
Venue: Zoom (waiting room opens at 5.45 PM for tuning)
Fee: £30 per class
10 December
Online Timeline Series – Cellist Catherine Black
We all want to be as rounded a musician as possible and that’s a pretty big ask. We all have our preferences, and the groups & orchestras we play in, take us down certain paths which enrich and educate us, but sometimes we find a hole in our knowledge!
The Online Time Line Series has really found a place in your lives. Join us to learn more about a remarkable piece of music, its composer, an era, its style that may otherwise have passed you by. Musical architecture, polyphony, phrasing, the place of music in society are all a part of this quest for a better understanding and roundedness.
We will play, discuss & explore from your – the player’s point of view – a particular piece of music from the wide library of Unsung Heroes Cello Ensemble scores. These now range from Josquin and John Taverner (1490–1545), through to Tchaikovsky & Elgar and far into the twentieth century.
Though there are some restrictions online, we can all play using the mute button, though not as a group. This is an exciting opportunity for players to have the chance to play as many parts as they wish as we play together.
You may want to bring a notebook too and I do send out further notes to help you continue the development after the class. I see this as a massive opportunity for us to do detailed work that really moves you on, because we have these apparent restrictions.
Just a thought: you may think a particular composer, (say Josquin for instance) isn’t for you. Don’t rule things out too easily as all these people, whose music I want to share with you, have so much light to shine for us. As cellists, there is so much music we miss because we have so much already written for us. This is an opportunity that I personally have loved developing.
Your score is sent to you on booking your place and there are 15 places per class so we keep the lesson small, detailed and personal.
Do look at all the parts if you can, so you get under the skin of the music.
Venue: Zoom
Fee: £25 per class
1 January 2023 (Deadline)
Gustav Mahler Prize 2023 – Cello Competition (Online)
The Gustav Mahler Institute Prague, in cooperation with the Gustav Mahler Philharmonic Jihlava, invite cellists of all nationalities up to the age of 30 to compete for the Gustav Mahler Award 2023. The competition will take place online via YouTube recordings. Many prizes have been prepared for a total of EUR 10,000. Each competitor will receive an expert jury evaluation. Please read the rules of the competition on our website. It’s easy.
Click here for more information.
Ongoing
Trad Cello – Tunes and Techniques with Natalie Haas
Let Natalie Haas teach you some tricks of the trade as well as some great melodies!
Natalie is one of the most sought after cellists playing traditional music today. She and Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser have toured as a duo for twenty years, wowing audiences at festivals and concerts worldwide with their unique sound.
In this series she will teach some bowing techniques when accompanying melody players before moving on to chords and arranging, finishing with some melodies that sit well on the cello.
Although this series is aimed at the cellist, many of the skills and techniques will sit as comfortably on any string instrument.
Click here to learn about membership options.
Win a Year of Free Lessons!
Enter a drawing for a year of free lessons via video exchange with cellist Mike Block. Click here to enter.
Previous Events Still Available
Your Turn
In the comments below, let us know about your favorite online events and concerts. Have an event or concert you’d like listed? Please get in touch.
