Albert Catell

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Albert Catell was born in Vilnius, Lithuanaia, in 1910 and began studying celo as a child with Mischa Schneider (later a member of the Budapest String Quartet) in Vilnius. In 1924 he went to the Leipzig Hochschule für Musik to study with Professor Julius Klengel, who was one of the most renowned cello teachers in the world. He completed his training there in 1927 and went to Berlin that year to work with the great cellist Emanuel Feuerbach.

He began his career as a solo cellist and chamber musician in Berlin. He was given a teaching post at the Warsaw Conservatory in 1933, but left in 1936 as the Nazi threat loomed ever greater on the horizont. He joined the newly founded Palestine (today Israel) Philharmonic Orchestra as a solo cellist. He played there with the best musicians and under the greatest conductors of his day, including Toscanini and Furtwängler. He also played in a string trio and string quartet, and taught at the Jerusalem Music Academy.

He began conducting in Jerusalem. In 1938 he decided to undergo a systematic training as a conductor with Felix Weingartner in Basel an Bernardino Molinari in Rome.

He settled permanently in the United States in 1953 and was active there as a cellist, teacher and conductor. A highly sought-after soloist, he played under such eminent conductors and composers as Leonard Bernstein, Hermann Scherchen, Felix Weingartner, Charles Münch, Bernardino Molinari and others. In 1976 he founded the New York Chamber Orchestra.