Lynn Harrell

Lynn Harrell (born January 30, 1944) is an American classical cellist. Harrell was born in New York City of musician parents; his father was the baritone Mack Harrell and his mother, Marjorie Fulton, was a violinist. At the age of eight he decided to learn to play the cello. When Lynn was 12, his family moved to Dallas, Texas, where Lynn studied with Lev Aronson. After high school, he studied at the Juilliard School in New York and then at the Cu... more

Lynn Harrell (born January 30, 1944) is an American classical cellist. Harrell was born in New York City of musician parents; his father was the baritone Mack Harrell and his mother, Marjorie Fulton, was a violinist. At the age of eight he decided to learn to play the cello. When Lynn was 12, his family moved to Dallas, Texas, where Lynn studied with Lev Aronson. After high school, he studied at the Juilliard School in New York and then at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. His influential cello teachers included Leonard Rose and Orlando Cole. He made his debut in 1961 playing with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. While still a teenager, Harrell was orphaned. His father died of cancer in 1960 and then, two years later, his mother died in a car accident when Lynn Harrell was 17. "After that", as he has said, "I moved around to different family friends' houses with my one suitcase and cello until I was 18, when I joined the Cleveland Orchestra. In part,... less