Music

Cello Music (etudes!) I’ve Written

My etudes were inspired by some young cellists who continually managed to forget their Dotzauer etudes. Hmmm…. So I decided it was time to write my own short and sweet studies in first position to help students young and old work through a lot of cello basics, musically and technically. These are definitely more contemporary in sound and personality than the old fashioned conservatory preparatory literature. You can buy 40 Etudes in the First Position at J.W. PepperDMB40Etudes. I also have a beginner to intermediate short cello quartet, Intrepid, available at J.W.DMBPepperIntrepid.

A Bit of My Cello History

I haven’t been performing since my hands and I agreed it was time to stop. Here are some old recordings of a few special music times.

What year was this Duruflé Requiem? It was a Kennedy Center performance and Shelley Waite was the alto. I’ll never forget making music with her. Here is the end of the Pie Jesu movement. I’m the cello person. 🙂

Segment of a Mozart Flute Quartet K285, movement 1.

This is short taste of the Spohr Nonet, movement 1. I had the opportunity to play it with members of the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra. My great friend Paula is the violinist. (I need a nice fade at the end but will have to work on that with the sound engineer, aka me!)

Another short sample from the Laitman trio, Images.

I played the cello in pit orchestras at Washington DC’s Arena Stage for 17 productions over 25 years. From Damn Yankees to Oklahoma!, The Music Man , Candide, My Fair Lady to Fiddler on the Roof, it was a great time. The Light in the Piazza was extra special in many ways. The new Arena Stage Mead Center was being built so the company was over the river in Virginia for this production. It was a small group of actors and musicians so we all felt really close, something that happens a lot in theatrical productions.