Cellist Roger Lebow has taught at Pomona College since 1993. His concert life—whether solo and chamber performances, or with LA Opera—embraces repertoire from the 16th century to the present. An early encounter with the viola da gamba led to a lifelong love affair with early music, which he performs on both viol and Baroque cello. At the same time, he maintains a deep interest in new music, which has led him to commission, premiere, and otherwise champion numerous cello works, and to help form the LA new music collective XTET, founded in 1986.
Mr. Lebow’s own teachers were either students of Gregor Piatigorsky (Laurence Lesser and Robert Sayre) or Pablo Casals (Gabor Rejto and William van den Burg). Having such illustrious cellistic forebears has redoubled his sense of purpose and urgency in passing along to new generations this precious and irreplaceable tradition. Lebow was formerly the cello teacher at Chapman University and Occidental College, and has also been on the guest faculty of CalArts, UC Irvine, and UC Bjoerling.
In the realm of chamber music Mr. Lebow was the founding cellist of the Armadillo String Quartet and the Clarion Trio, and he spent several years in Seattle with the Philadelphia String Quartet. Lebow has chamber recordings on the Delos, New World, Water Lily Acoustics, Spectral Harmonies, and Albany labels.
For a decade the principal cellist of the LA Mozart Orchestra, he has also appeared as soloist and chamber artist at the Oregon Bach Festival and Cabrillo Music Festival. A former mainstay of the LA studio scene, you enjoyed him on the soundtrack of hundreds of movies, and on albums by such period acts as ELO, Kim Carnes and Alanis Morissette.
Mr. Lebow’s own teachers were either students of Gregor Piatigorsky (Laurence Lesser and Robert Sayre) or Pablo Casals (Gabor Rejto and William van den Burg). Having such illustrious cellistic forebears has redoubled his sense of purpose and urgency in passing along to new generations this precious and irreplaceable tradition. Lebow was formerly the cello teacher at Chapman University and Occidental College, and has also been on the guest faculty of CalArts, UC Irvine, and UC Bjoerling.
In the realm of chamber music Mr. Lebow was the founding cellist of the Armadillo String Quartet and the Clarion Trio, and he spent several years in Seattle with the Philadelphia String Quartet. Lebow has chamber recordings on the Delos, New World, Water Lily Acoustics, Spectral Harmonies, and Albany labels.
For a decade the principal cellist of the LA Mozart Orchestra, he has also appeared as soloist and chamber artist at the Oregon Bach Festival and Cabrillo Music Festival. A former mainstay of the LA studio scene, you enjoyed him on the soundtrack of hundreds of movies, and on albums by such period acts as ELO, Kim Carnes and Alanis Morissette.