Babcock, Martha

Cellist from Freeport, Illinois, who started studying music when she was six years old and gravitated to the cello at the age of ten.

She attended the Boston University School for the Arts, Freeport High School, Harvard University and Radcliffe College, and was a member of the Freeport High School Orchestra and Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra. Her instructors comprised Lowell Creitz, George Neikrug, and Aldo Parisot.

On 28^th April 1967, the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra appeared at Sanders Theatre where they performed Concerto Grosso in D minor by Antonio Vivaldi, Dialoghi for Cello and Orchestra by Luigi Dallapiccola, and Symphony No. 3 by Johannes Brahms.

She joined the Montreal Symphony Orchestra at nineteen years of age, making her the youngest musician with them at the time. In 1973, she became a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Other groups with whom she has worked include the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Civic Symphony, the Boston Classical Orchestra, the Boston Pops, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Classic Trio, the Collage New Chamber Music Ensemble, the Fine Arts Trio of New England, the Higginson Trio, and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston.

On 25^th November 1984, the Classic Trio, which was rounded out by pianist Luise Vosgerchian and violinist Emanuel Borok, gave a recital under the umbrella of the Needham Concert Society. Martha performed another Needham Concert with flautist Anthony Dwyer and violinist Harvey Seigel on 13^th April 1986.

In 1989, she appeared on the album, Rebecca Clarke: Music for Viola. Her other recordings include America, American Visions, The Celtic Album, Chamber Music of James Yannatos, Collage, Holiday Pops, Irwin Bazelon: Woodwind Quintet/Imprints on Ivory and Strings/Sound Dreams/Five Pieces for Piano/Brass Quintet, Pops in Love, A Splash of Pops, and The Very Best of John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra.

She and flautist Fenwick Smith, violinist Laura Park and violist Patricia McCarty performed J. Kuffner’s arrangement of Gioacchino Rossini’s overture from William Tell at Jordan Hall on 22^nd September 1991.

In March 1998, she was a guest soloist of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra in a concert of Concerto in A minor for Cello and Orchestra by Robert Schumann, Dances from Estancia by Alberto Ginastera and Symphony No. 5 by Sergei Prokofiev.

She also participated in the La Musica International Chamber Music Festival in 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2001.

On 8^th August 2001, she was one of a handful of BSO musicians to join pianist Gilbert Kalish and soprano Dawn Upshaw for a prelude concert in Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood. The warmer-upper consisted of Folk Songs by Luciano Berio, Hungarian folk-song settings by Bela Bartok, songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn by Gustav Mahler and Songs with Piano by Charles Ives.

The Boston Pops presented John Williams Film Night in August 2002, when Martha performed the solo in the theme from Angela’s Ashes (Angela’s Prayer).

On 14^th October 2004, the BSO offered up Symphony No. 8 by Antonin Dvorak, Le Tombeau de Couperin by Maurice Ravel, and Tout un monde lointain by Henri Dutilleux.

Tanglewood on Parade took place on 5^th August 2008 and featured no fewer than five conductors: Sir Andrew Davis, Hans Graf, Keith Lockhart, Sir Andre Previn, and John Williams. Martha took up solo duties again, this time on Williams‘ Elegy for Cello and Orchestra.

In February 2009, the BSO performed Piano Concerto No. 2 by Franz Liszt, Symphony No. 6 by Dvorak, and Valses nobles et sentimentales by Ravel.

They teamed up with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus on 6^th April 2010 for the oratorio Elijah by Felix Mendelssohn and did the same on 23^rd April 2011 for St. John Passion, BWV 245 by Johann Sebastian Bach.

In July 2011, they opened their season at Tanglewood with an ambitious Italian program that opened with the entire first act of Norma by Vincenzo Bellini and also featured the aforementioned overture from William Tell by Rossini, The Pines of Rome by Ottorino Respighi and the trio from Act III of I Lombardi by Giuseppe Verdi.

Sources:

Babcock, Martha

Navigation