Starker | Kodály Solo Sonata, Part III
Starker | Artist & Teacher
  • By Emilio Colon – Janos Starker was born on July 5, 1924 in Budapest, Hungary. Starker’s first cello teacher was Fritz Teller. after a few months of study, Starker's parents decided to take him to Teller’s teacher Adolph Schiffer who had been David Popper’s student and succeeded him at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music where Starker studied. In 1931 Starker’s mother took him to his first concert in which Pablo Casals played. Shiffer introduced the young Starker to Maestro Casals and mentioned his talent. Casals kissed him on the check and his fate was sealed.
  • The teaching genius of Janos Starker launched at the early age of eight when he gave lessons to his first student, the then six-year-old, Eva Czako. Since, his teaching has influenced generations of cellists for well over eight decades.  Throughout his unprecedented performance career which began in 1938 at the age of fourteen as a solo cellist playing the Dvorak Concerto and then as of principal cellist of the Budapest Opera and Philharmonic Orchestras, Janos Starker always shared his time between being an artist and teacher for he stated: “I can not perform without teaching and can not teach without performing.” Read more>>
Starker | Core Principles
  • There are a number of rules that come from the teachings of Janos Starker concerning the left hand, most of them having to do with position changes: avoid unnecessary motions; change at smaller distances; avoid contrary motions in succession; and, in distant connections use higher numbered fingers to lower numbered fingers or the same finger, so as to allow the rotation of the forearm, and to continue to touch the strings at an identical angle. Read more>>
Starker | Tributes
  • "I feel truly fortunate to have been able to study with him (Janos Starker), and so indebted to him. I have learned and am still learning so much from him as an artist, as a teacher, and as a person. I shall try to continue spreading his great teaching as broad as possible." Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, International Concert Cellist President - Toho Gakuen Read more>>
Video credits

janosstarker

The teaching genius of Janos Starker first showed at the early age of eight when he gave lessons to his first student, six-year-old Eva Czako. Since that time, his teaching has influenced generations of cellists for well over eight decades. Throughout his legendary performing career, which began in 1938 at the age of fourteen with the Dvorak Concerto and as Principal Cellist of the Budapest Opera and Philharmonic Orchestras, Janos Starker has always divided his time between performer and teacher: “I cannot perform without teaching and cannot teach without performing.”
Starker | Videos