Orlando Cole
| Orlando Cole | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 16, 1908 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | January 25, 2010 (aged 101) |
| Genres | Classical |
| Occupation(s) | Musical performer |
| Instruments | Cello |
| Years active | 1927–2008 |
Orlando Cole (August 16, 1908 – January 25, 2010) was a cello teacher who taught two generations of soloists, chamber musicians, and first cellists in a dozen leading orchestras, including Lynn Harrell, Jonah Kim, Daniel Lee, Ronald Leonard, Lorne Munroe, Peter Stumpf, Christopher Rex, Anne Martindale Williams, Michael Grebanier, and Marcy Rosen.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, the son of Lucius Cole, a violinist in the Philadelphia Orchestra, he entered the first class of the Curtis Institute of Music in 1924 as a pupil of Felix Salmond and graduated in 1934. He was a founding member in 1927 of what was then known as the Swastika Quartet. In 1932, shortly before Adolf Hitler's election and adoption of this symbol (albeit rotated), the fledgling quartet renamed itself as the Curtis String Quartet after the school's founder, Mary Louise Curtis.
During this time, Cole was a classmate and friend of the composer Samuel Barber. Barber composed for and dedicated his Cello Sonata, op. 6 to Cole. Mr. Cole and the composer collaborated closely on its composition, reading a page at a time as it was written, until they gave the work its premiere in New York's Town Hall in 1933. Barber wrote also wrote his Quartet, op. 11, with its famous adagio, for the Curtis Quartet. The ensemble played this work from manuscript for several years, and it was only when the time of publication arrived that Barber chose to make major changes: the first movement was shortened significantly, with its coda ultimately becoming the finale of what is now the third movement, and the original contrapuntal third movement was abandoned entirely in favor of a reprise of the first movement's basic thematic material.. In the years since, several ensembles have sought to perform this original version, but Barber's longtime companion, Gian Carlo Menotti, the holder of his copyrights, forbade it. Barber acknowledged to Cole in a letter accompanying the manuscript score sent from Rome attesting to the composer's great confidence in the slow movement. The quartet's first performance of the work in Curtis Hall is testament to the same - so rapturous was the audience's response following the adagio that the ensemble was compelled to encore it right away before continuing on to the finale. Samuel Barber also composed for the Curtis String Quartet his work for voice and string quartet, Dover Beach, set to the lyric verse of the same name by Matthew Arnold. The vocal line was originally sung by Rose Bampton in its premiere in Curtis Hall and recorded in this form, but as the composer was dissatisfied with the work's dramatic impact given the male personage of the text, Samuel Barber chose to sing it himself for its recording in 1935. An earlier piece, the Serenade, was also written for the Curtis String Quartet, though it fell quickly from the composer's favor and is rarely played today.
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