Harvey Shapiro (cellist)

Harvey Shapiro (June 22, 1911 – October 25, 2007) was an American cellist and teacher.

Harvey Shapiro was born in New York City to Russian immigrant parents in 1911.

He began cello lessons at age 7 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.

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.

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.

At the age of 9, Shapiro won a scholarship to study at the Institute of Musical Art, the predecessor institution of the Juilliard School.

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

Upon graduation he won the Loeb Prize in 1932, followed by the Naumburg Prize in 1935.

He also won the Willem Willeke Scholarship to continue graduate studies at Juilliard, with a fellowship in conducting.

His professional debut was in 1935 at New York City's Town Hall.

Shapiro made his professional debut at Town Hall in New York City on November 11, 1935.

His recital partner was pianist Harry Kaufman.

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," 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."

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

In 1939, William Primrose founded the Primrose String Quartet, whose members were all colleagues from the NBC Symphony.

Shapiro was one of the quartet's founding members, who were also all neighbors in the same apartment building, 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.

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

Following this, he was chosen by Arturo Toscanini to play in the cello section of the NBC Symphony Orchestra, whereupon he became its principal in 1943.

He was also a founding member of its associated chamber ensembles, the Primrose Quartet and NBC Trio.

After leaving the NBC Symphony in 1946, Shapiro performed prolifically as a studio musician and chamber musician.

In 1947, he was a founding member of the WQXR Radio Quartet, which played the international and American premieres of works by various composers until its dissolution in 1963.

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.

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.

The WQXR Radio Quartet also participated in their namesake station's first stereophonic broadcast in 1952.

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.

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."

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.

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:

"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."

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

Throughout his tenure at WQXR, Shapiro continued to perform as a soloist and studio musician.

From 1970, Shapiro turned his focus to teaching.

He taught at the Juilliard School, and gave summer classes and master classes elsewhere in the United States, Canada, and Europe; continuing until 2006.

He died in 2007.