WFIU celebrates music professor's 80th birthday

Classical music fans in the Bloomington area have just two chances left to hear broadcasts of selected performances by Janos Starker, internationally acclaimed cellist and IU distinguished professor of music. In honor of Starker's 80th birthday, which he celebrated over the summer, WFIU, IU's educational radio station, has declared Starker its Artist of the Month for September.\n"It's a designation we do to focus on someone in the community, and we feature their performances," WFIU Music Director Robert Lumpkin said.\nWFIU has already broadcast Starker's recordings of Bach's "Suite No. 2" and Antonin Dvorak's "Cello Concerto in B" as part of its evening classical music programming. At 7:07 p.m. Sept. 23, WFIU will broadcast a performance by Starker and Piano Professor Shigeo Neriki of Rachmaninov's Cello "Sonata in G." The last featured broadcast of the month will take place at 7:07 p.m. Sept. 29 with Starker's recording of Zoltan Kodaly's Cello Sonata.\nStarker, a native of Budapest, Hungary, joined the IU School of Music faculty in 1958 after spending a decade as principal of three of the United States' leading orchestras. In addition to teaching, Starker continued to give concerts worldwide and create countless recordings of the cello repertoire.\nMany of these performances and recordings have been the result of collaborations with other former and current School of Music faculty members. He has edited and recorded jazz professor David Baker's piece for cello and percussion, "Singers of Songs, Weavers of Dreams," an homage to jazz greats of the past, as well as Baker's "Sonata for Cello and Piano." Starker also performed frequently with the late Professors Emeriti Josef Gingold, violin, and Gyorgy Sebok, piano.\nOne collaboration in particular led to the rare opportunity to perform the American premiere of a Haydn composition. Haydn's "Cello Concerto in C" was lost to the world until its discovery in Prague, Czech Republic, in 1961. It was subsequently performed by Starker with the New York Festival Orchestra, founded and directed by IU choral conducting faculty member Thomas Dunn.\n"He possessed a technical mastery and a clear, clean tone that made him easy to accompany," Dunn said. "He was admired by many a young cellist."\nThis admiration has attracted countless numbers of students to Starker's studio, many of whom go on to achieve positions in the world's leading orchestras or, as in the case of Cello Professor Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, return to IU to teach alongside their former teacher. And even as Starker marked his 80th year in July, he has no plans to turn any students away.\n"As long as I can walk into my studio or the students can walk to my house, I will teach them," Starker said. \nWFIU's decision to honor Starker as its Artist of the Month also coincides with the upcoming publication of "The World of Music According to Starker," a compilation of essays and autobiographical anecdotes, and this weekend's 26th annual Eva Janzer Memorial Celebration Sunday.\nJanzer, a childhood friend of Starker's in Budapest, Hungary, joined the School of Music in 1972. After her death in 1978, Starker established the Eva Janzer Memorial Cello Center, which provides scholarships for outstanding cello students and annually honors the achievements of professional cellists for their contribution to the music community. \nThis year's celebration will feature masterclasses by honorees Bonnie Hampton and Alan Harris Sunday in Recital Hall, as well as a Saturday afternoon masterclass by Starker, which is not officially part of the celebration.\n-- Contact staff writer Eric Anderson at eraander@indiana.edu.