Harvey Shapiro (cellist)

Harvey Shapiro was born in New York City to Russian immigrant parents in 1911.[1] He began cello lessons at age 7[2] with Willem Willeke. Willeke was the director of the South Mountain Music Festival and Walter W. Naumburg Foundation, as well as the president of The Bohemians, a New York music club.[3] He was invited at the age of 8 to study with Julius Klengel in Germany, but was forced to decline on account of his family's lack of financial resources.[4] For a time, economic hardship led Shapiro and his family to move to San Francisco; he later returned to New York City where he settled permanently.[2][4]

At the age of 9, Shapiro won a scholarship to study at the Institute of Musical Art, the predecessor institution of the Juilliard School.[2] Upon graduation he won the Loeb Prize in 1932, followed by the Naumburg Prize in 1935.[5] He also won the Willem Willeke Scholarship to continue graduate studies at Juilliard, with a fellowship in conducting.[2]

Shapiro made his professional debut at Town Hall in New York City on November 11, 1935. His recital partner was pianist Harry Kaufman.[6] While Harold A. Strickland of the Brooklyn Times-Union appraised Shapiro's tone as "not yet agreeable of texture" and criticized his interpretative skills as "limited,"[7] Winthrop Sargeant of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle was more positive:

[O]ne was able to perceive that Mr. Shapiro is a talented and thoughtful young musician, not yet capable of interpreting the great works of the repertoire with all the authority of a mature artist, but, nevertheless, showing seriousness of purpose and mechanical resourcefulness that promise well for the future.[8]

In 1937, Shapiro was selected by Arturo Toscanini to join the cello section of the NBC Symphony Orchestra;[9] he was appointed principal cello in 1943[10] and remained with the ensemble until 1946.[11]

During the late 1930s, Shapiro also played in orchestras at Radio City Music Hall[12] and the New York World's Fair.[13]

In 1939, William Primrose founded the Primrose String Quartet, whose members were all colleagues from the NBC Symphony.[14] Shapiro was one of the quartet's founding members, who were also all neighbors in the same apartment building,[4] playing with them until they split up in 1942. Although they were hailed as one of the great string quartets of their time, the Primrose's discography is small; plans to record an entire cycle of Beethoven's string quartets were canceled by the American entry into World War II.[15]

Shapiro also played in an ensemble called the NBC Trio, with violinist Josef Gingold and pianist Earl Wild.[4]

From 1947 to 1963 Shapiro performed with the WQXR Radio Quartet; his fellow members were Hugo Fiorato, Harry Glickman (violins), and Jack Braunstein (viola). The quartet played and broadcast the premieres of works by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Darius Milhaud, Peggy Glanville-Hicks, and Carl Stamitz.[16] They also played the American premiere of Anton Bruckner's String Quartet, a performance that was organized in collaboration with the score's publisher, C. F. Peters.[17] The WQXR Radio Quartet also participated in their namesake station's first stereophonic broadcast in 1952.[16]

In 1962, the station disbanded the quartet as a result of lack of sponsorships and its inability to "carry its own weight." The termination was controversial among students at Columbia University, who distributed flyers criticizing the move:[18]

Since Toscanini, [the WQXR Radio Quartet] has been the last bulwark of live, good music on the air. [...] Needless to say, because of the quartet's exceptional performances and superior standards, these weekly broadcasts have become one of the most anticipated listening hours for those who seek the finer performances in the chamber music field.[18]

Students also urged supporters to petition the station and its owner, the New York Times, to rescind the WQXR Radio Quartet's termination.[18]

Throughout his tenure at WQXR, Shapiro continued to perform as a soloist and studio musician.[10] On July 12, 1954, Shapiro performed a duet with Oscar Shumsky on an episode of The Voice of Firestone which was dedicated to the music and memory of Idabelle Smith Firestone, composer and widow of Harvey S. Firestone. The program was broadcast on ABC.[19] His solos on a 1961 RCA Victor LP with Leopold Stokowski conducting the Symphony of the Air, which was made up of former members of the NBC Symphony Orchestra, earned the cellist praise from the San Francisco Examiner, who called him a "first-rate artist and master of his instrument."[20] Shapiro's playing of the cello solo in a recording of Johannes Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 he made with pianist Artur Rubinstein drew congratulations from record engineer John Pfeiffer, as well as his fellow Symphony of the Air musicians.[4]

Shapiro also recorded as soloist with Victor Records, Columbia Records, American Decca Records, and Nonesuch Records.

In 1970, at the recommendation of Leonard Rose, Shapiro was appointed professor of cello at the Juilliard School. Originally he was to replace Rose on a temporary basis while the latter was touring with Isaac Stern and Eugene Istomin in a piano trio,[4] but ultimately held his position for more than thirty years. He had little experience teaching prior to his appointment.[10] He also taught at the Summer Chamber Music School at the University of Maine[11] and at the Johannesen International School of the Arts in Victoria, British Columbia;[21] at the former institution he was a replacement for Raya Garbousova, who wanted to spend time with her family during the summer instead of teach.[11]

While teaching in British Columbia, Shapiro gave recitals at the McPherson Playhouse marking the 50th anniversary of his professional debut on August 10, 1986[22] and his 80th birthday in 1991.[23] He was partnered respectively with pianists Ruth Laredo[22] and Jane Hayes.[23] At the former concert, Shapiro played despite broken ribs and a torn muscle incurred from a fall a few days before.[22] Nevertheless, Audrey Johnson of the Times-Colonist approved of his performance, writing that he "played the cello as though his hands and arms were a part of his instrument, an extension of his musical instinct and profound understanding."[22] Another reviewer for the same paper, Mikki Reintjes, wrote of Shapiro's 80th birthday recital in 1991:

If ever a concert in Victoria was deserving of adulation and respect, it was Sunday night's solo cello recital given by Harvey Shapiro at the McPherson Playhouse [...] What was most impressive about Shapiro was not just his technical eloquence and finesse, but the unforced artistry with which he played. There was no showmanship or gimmicks in this performance. Shapiro's performance contained some of the most honest music-making that Victorians have had the privilege of hearing. [...] [T]he tone colors that Shapiro pulled from his cello were simply amazing.[23]

Shapiro was one of the performers at the Naumberg Foundation's 70th anniversary gala concert on December 11, 1996. He was the eldest of all the Naumberg Prize winners on the program.[24]

He remained an active teacher into his 90s, despite health problems, including arthritis, broken hips, failing eyesight, and cancer.[4][1] He devised alternate fingerings in order to mitigate his arthritis.[1] In March 1998 he gave a very well received recital at the Prinzregententheater in Munich. He continued to give master classes in Europe, notably in Salzburg, Vienna, Engelberg and Florence until 2006.