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Terry King

Terry King headshot

Senior Artist Teacher

Instrumental Studies

The Hartt School
860.768.4461 http://www.kingcello.com/
Education

DMA, University of Iowa

MM, University of Northern Iowa

BM, Mount Saint Mary’s College


Grammy®-nominated cellist Terry King, acclaimed as "A wonderful cellist". . ."a master player". . ."a master technician". . . Following his debut, The New York Times proclaimed that his playing "could not be faulted. . .playing with relish and technical aplomb." As a protégé of the legendary Gregor Piatigorsky, he served as his assistant in the famed master classes at the University of Southern California. King was privileged to join his teacher in a duo concert in one of the master's last appearances.

Dr. King is a devoted teacher - with students placed worldwide in orchestras and in the teaching profession - as well as a unique cellist, chamber musician and conductor. His repertoire features the classic works for cello including unknown masterworks he has found throughout the world. Many prominent American composers have written works for King including Roy Harris, Paul Creston, Lou Harrison, and Otto Luening; he has also premiered solo works by Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, Henry Cowell, Miklós Rózsa and Lukas Foss. Mr. King is a member of the Mirecourt Trio, specialists in new repertoire, and has served on the faculties of the San Francisco Conservatory, UC Berkeley, California State University at Fullerton, Grinnell College, and the University of Iowa. He currently teaches at both the Longy School of Music and The Hartt School and in the summer months at the Quartet Program and at LyricaFest.

Mr. King is Artistic Director of Lyrica Boston, a chamber music series in Boston that features international artists performing alongside emerging professionals. He is engaged in a recording project of standard and American works for cello on the Music and Arts label. His recording of the complete Mendelssohn works was praised in Fanfare Magazine, "of all versions this is the most consistently thought out and expressively realized. . .intensely poetic" and was also the preferred recording mentioned on the nationally syndicated radio program, First Hearing. His groundbreaking series "Cello America" has been met with similar praise worldwide. Terry King records for MCA, CRI, Innova, Genesis, Orion, A&M, Music and Arts, Bay Cities, Albany, Troy, Varese Sarabande, Sony and Cinnabar Records.

I believe there is little difference between teaching and learning. Though the student-teacher relationship seems one-sided with regard to vulnerability, I see the connection as fluid and equally rewarding. I see myself as an older benevolent guide, eager for students to find their gifts and to reach their dream.

The love of music is forever present and at the core of all good labor. The desire to create something beautiful begins with the belief that it can be done. I therefore begin with the student's strengths as well as their own agenda. The process naturally navigates to core issues in a short time; what transpires in between is the building of trust between student and teacher. Advanced students, of course, have more specific needs. Their agenda is hugely varied and therefore custom-made.

I believe that technical needs cannot be hidden - even when one tries! The path becomes revealed as the student understands what is specifically needed to serve the music and to express oneself completely. What could have been dismantling - by directly attacking a sizeable shopping list of problems - can now be personally empowering, building the musician from within. Far too often students are defeated before they begin.

The spirit of curiosity and fascination with how things work- rather than the suffering of faults and failures, usually fearfully or blindly labored - is a successful way of learning. Problems are opportunities to explore the how and "failing" is our "gift" to discover its message.

I want to help students learn how to teach themselves. This state of mind hopefully makes my role as teacher less important over time. I want to see students become fearless enough to be themselves. Granted, the ideal state takes time, but within a short time it begins to show, however, with others it will take longer, depending upon the level. The materials I use run the gamut of pedagogy as well as the creative use of scales, octaves, 6ths and 3rds and the creation of custom drills for both hands.

Our biggest battle is with time itself. An academic schedule and its consuming life style demand that we feed its relentless hunger on schedule. The mastery of our art must equal its impatience with self-discipline and self-motivation; we must not yield to external demands at the cost of internal neglect.

I love teaching. I am captivated with it, and grateful for all the knowledge students have given me.