Carter Brey Archives

CelloChat: Carter Brey

Carter Brey was appointed principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic in 1996, and made his subscription debut as soloist with the orchestra the following year in Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations led by then-Music Director Kurt Masur. He has appeared as soloist with many of America's major symphony orchestras. With the Philharmonic, he has performed in the Haydn C Major Concerto under Music Director Jaap van Zweden; in the Barber, Dvorák, Elgar, and Schumann cello concertos under then-Music Director Alan Gilbert; in Richard Strauss's Don Quixote with music directors Lorin Maazel and Zubin Mehta; in the Brahms Double Concerto with then-Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow and conductor Christoph Eschenbach, as well as with Lorin Maazel on the orchestra's 2007 European tour; in William Schuman's A Song of Orpheus with conductor Christian Thielemann; and in the Boccherini Cello Concerto in D with conductor Riccardo Muti. He also performed the Brahms work at Tanglewood Music Center in the summer of 2002 as part of Kurt Masur's final concerts as the Philharmonic's music director.

By CelloBello Webmaster|2021-09-27T13:45:51-04:00September 27th, 2021|Categories: CelloChats, Virtual Events|Tags: New York Philharmonic, Curtis Institute of Music, Carter Brey|

Conversation with Carter Brey (April, 2000)

Interview by Tim Janof Carter Brey was appointed Principal Cellist of the New York Philharmonic in 1996. He rose to international attention in 1981 as a prizewinner in the Rostropovich International Cello Competition. Subsequent appearances with Rostropovich and the National Symphony Orchestra were unanimously praised. The winner of the Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Prize, Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Young Concert Artists Michaels Award and other honors, he also was the first musician to win the Arts Council of Americas Performing Arts Prize. Mr. Brey has appeared as soloist with virtually all the major orchestras in the United States, and has performed under the batons of Claudio Abbado, Semyon Bychkov, Sergiu Comissiona, Christoph von Dohnanyi, and other prominent conductors. In 1990, he was featured in a concert with cellist Yo-Yo Ma [...]

By Tim Janof|2024-07-08T12:39:38-04:00March 22nd, 2021|Categories: Internet Cello Society Archive, Interviews|Tags: Carter Brey, Mstislav Rostropovich, laurence lesser, Internet Cello Society, ICS, Stephen Kates, Interpretation, NY Phil, repertoire, Technique|

What Makes a Baroque Cellist — by Guy Fishman

I was once accused of playing like a baroque cellist. It was most certainly an accusation, and I don’t know what the coach was hoping to achieve by framing her opinion of my playing in such terms. Suffice it to say I was insulted, and the funny thing is, I don’t even know why. Okay, I was playing Brahms’s F major sonata, on a cello that had an endpin and two steel strings (the other two were wound gut). My partner was playing a Steinway M. Furthermore, and perhaps most revealing, is the fact that by the time I was being coached on this piece, during my second year of doctoral studies at New England Conservatory, I had already won a position with Boston’s Handel & Haydn Society, the nation’s [...]

By Guy Fishman|2021-07-26T15:08:11-04:00October 25th, 2013|Categories: Artistic Vision, Baroque|Tags: teachers, historically-informed performance, Beethoven, New York, interest, cello, academic, Jascha Heifetz, cellobello, Baroque, Matt Haimovitz, cellists, Boccherini, modern playing, Bach Suites, Carter Brey, prominence, performance, critic, Vivaldi, experiments, David Soyer, Yo-Yo Ma, possibility, dual careers, Pablo Casals, Anner Bylsma, endpins, Brahms, curiosity, gut strings, Paul Katz|