Harvey Shapiro has died

November 1, 2007 at 11:28 PM · Now I´m hearing an historical recording from the Vivaldi´s Concerto in D minor for two violins, cello and strings, Op.3 No.11, in which Professor Shapiro shared his leading role with Nathan Milstein and Erica Morini.

Rest in peace, Mr.Shapiro.

November 2, 2007 at 07:59 AM · About 14 years ago my daughter attended a cello summer school and masterclasses in an Esterhazy palace in Hungary.Haydn was once the resident composer there.The palace had seen better days but was full of musical ghosts.Harvey Shapiro gave time to all the young cellists there.Already old and with failing eyesight he confided in me that he could no longer see in the dark and consequently car journeys through the alps became a mystery tour as there were so many tunnels and he said that he became completely disorientated.This was all recounted with such good humour obviously he had a wonderful attitude to life and its consequences.Its frighteneing that so many important musical figures of my daughters formative years have now passed on.Emmanual Hurwitz was another.It makes me feel sad and rather old.

November 2, 2007 at 02:42 PM · Shapiro was the cellist on the short-lived but great Primrose SQ (Oscar Shumsky-Josef Gingold-Primrose and Shapiro!) They left only a

handful of recordings, but all are wonderful.

November 2, 2007 at 07:01 PM · From my understanding, Harvey Shapiro was a former assistant to Leonard Rose. I have a cellist friend James Kreger in the Met Opera Orchestra who studied with both Rose and Shapiro. (He's the cellist that was interviewed on the the link provided by Laurie on v.com). When the Shapiro/Rose relationship ended (sort of like Galamian/Delay), he had to choose between the two. He chose Shapiro over Rose because he was the better teacher. Yo-Yo Ma, Lynn Harrell, Joel Krosnick, etc stayed with Rose.

I first heard about Mr. Shapiro's death last week from my friend who was by his bedside until the last moment he lived. This incident has left a very sad impression on my friend he is very much mourning the loss of Mr. Shapiro.