Daniel Morganstern
Cello
Daniel Morganstern has served as solo cellist for two of America's most prestigious organizations, the American Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, for over three decades. He has performed virtually every major cello solo from the opera and ballet repertoire with such stars as Pavarotti, Domingo, Sutherland, Ramey, Fleming, Baryshnikov, Makavora, and Nureyev on national radio and television broadcasts.
Praised as a "first-rate cellist" in the New York Times and a "superb cellist" in The Strad, his New York recitals have included three at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, five at Carnegie Recital Hall, two concerts broadcast live over WNYC from the Brooklyn Museum in collaboration with the noted pianists Richard Goode and Ursula Oppens and recitals at the Lincoln Center Library and the New York Cultural Center. Donal Henahan, chief critic for the New York Times, hailed him as a "first rate cellist" and commented "not many modestly heralded concerts in the season proved as satisfying as this one in musicianship, ensemble coordination and grasp of style." Peter G. Davis, in addition to lauding his "warm sweet tone, sophisticated sense of lyrical expansion and command of delicate color effects," said "Daniel Morganstern brought some unusual interpretive thoughts to his largely tried-and-true cello favorites Saturday night in Tully Hall. Often his individual approach did bear fruit" in his New York Times review. In collaboration with pianist Eric Larsen he presented the complete works for cello and piano of Ludwig Van Beethoven at Carnegie Recital Hall. Bernard Holland commented in the New York Times "so rewarding was Saturday's evening of piano and cello music that one regretted missing its companion concert a week before. Rarely is this music allowed to speak in such a natural buoyant voice."
Publications include Fundamentals of Cello Technique and Musical Interpretation; Cello Solos from Opera and Ballet; new editions of the Schumann A Minor Concerto, Tchaikovsky Variations on a Rococo Theme, the Boccherini Concerto, and a transcription of the Schumann A Minor Violin Sonata, Op. 105 by International Music Company New York. His treatise Practice for Performance is published by Mel Bay Publications, Inc, and his articles can be found in The Instrumentalist. In addition to his recordings with the American Chamber Trio, his recordings include sonatas by Beethoven (complete), Brahms, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and Schubert; Three Tangos by William Ryden; and duos of Kodaly and Ravel. Videos include sonatas by Francoeur, Schubert, Beethoven, and Rachmaninoff.
During the last several summers, he's been a guest faculty member at the Meadowmount School of Music, the String Academy at Indiana University, and the Aspen Music Festival.