Miranda Wilson's Blog - Posts Tagged "cello-books"
Books for the Cellist on Your List
If someone in your life spends their whole time playing cello, listening to cello music, reading about cello, and dreaming about cello all night, here are some holiday gift ideas to keep them busy in the rare moments they put down their cello!
Cello is a genial guide to good cello playing, written in an approachable, common-sense style. Author William Pleeth, who taught Jacqueline du Pré, writes about fundamentals as much as interpretation, teaching what it means to be a musician of integrity.
Speaking of du Pré... Jacqueline du Pré: Her Life, Her Music, Her Legend traces the famous British cellist's career from her early debut through her years as an international star, a career that ended tragically with a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. Elizabeth Wilson (no relation!), herself a cellist who knew du Pré, has particular insight into, and sympathy for, her subject. The biography moves beyond the sensationalism of the 1999 film "Hilary and Jackie" to focus on the complicated yet brilliant woman whose recordings remain beloved to this day.
I've recommended Cello: A Journey Through Silence to Sound before in this blog, but I'm mentioning this 2025 release again because if you haven't yet read it, you're missing out! Kate Kennedy follows the lives of four cellists whose extraordinary stories couldn't be more different from each other, but who had one thing in common: their instrument. Kennedy, herself a cellist whose performing career was curtailed by injury, traveled across Europe retracing their paths—from Lise Cristiani, the highly unusual 19th-century cellist whose travels took her to Siberia and beyond, to Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who survived Auschwitz because of playing cello in the camp orchestra. The book isn't only a biography, it's a love story about what the cello means to those who play it.
My latest book just turned one year old! Notes for Cellists: A Guide to the Repertoire guides cellists of all stripes through our rich and exciting repertoire. I wrote these essays so that cellists would have detailed program notes on cello music from the seventeenth century to the present day. I've always felt that my own love of cello music was hugely enriched by understanding something about the context of the pieces I played, and as a cello professor, I always ask my students to analyze the compositions they're learning. Why not, I thought, combine all of this in one place? To this end, I created a reference guide for anyone who's preparing for a recital, teaching their own students, or simply seeking a greater background knowledge of the music they love.
Cello is a genial guide to good cello playing, written in an approachable, common-sense style. Author William Pleeth, who taught Jacqueline du Pré, writes about fundamentals as much as interpretation, teaching what it means to be a musician of integrity.
Speaking of du Pré... Jacqueline du Pré: Her Life, Her Music, Her Legend traces the famous British cellist's career from her early debut through her years as an international star, a career that ended tragically with a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. Elizabeth Wilson (no relation!), herself a cellist who knew du Pré, has particular insight into, and sympathy for, her subject. The biography moves beyond the sensationalism of the 1999 film "Hilary and Jackie" to focus on the complicated yet brilliant woman whose recordings remain beloved to this day.
I've recommended Cello: A Journey Through Silence to Sound before in this blog, but I'm mentioning this 2025 release again because if you haven't yet read it, you're missing out! Kate Kennedy follows the lives of four cellists whose extraordinary stories couldn't be more different from each other, but who had one thing in common: their instrument. Kennedy, herself a cellist whose performing career was curtailed by injury, traveled across Europe retracing their paths—from Lise Cristiani, the highly unusual 19th-century cellist whose travels took her to Siberia and beyond, to Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who survived Auschwitz because of playing cello in the camp orchestra. The book isn't only a biography, it's a love story about what the cello means to those who play it.
My latest book just turned one year old! Notes for Cellists: A Guide to the Repertoire guides cellists of all stripes through our rich and exciting repertoire. I wrote these essays so that cellists would have detailed program notes on cello music from the seventeenth century to the present day. I've always felt that my own love of cello music was hugely enriched by understanding something about the context of the pieces I played, and as a cello professor, I always ask my students to analyze the compositions they're learning. Why not, I thought, combine all of this in one place? To this end, I created a reference guide for anyone who's preparing for a recital, teaching their own students, or simply seeking a greater background knowledge of the music they love.
