Amit Peled Releases Bach Cello Suites Vol. 1 On Pablo Casals 1733 Goffriller Cello

Israeli-American cellist Amit Peled announces the release of his latest album, Bach Suites Volume 1, on February 1, 2019on CTM Classics. Recorded on the superb 1733 Goffriller cello formerly owned by Pablo Casals, the album features the first three suites and marks the first time that Bach's Suites have been recorded on the instrument since Casals' own path-breaking venture in 1936.

"Casals had nothing in his ear as a model when he began recording the Suites," says Peled. "When I started, I had his recording, of course, plus those of 50 other great cellists. I've had the honor of performing on this cello since 2014 and I needed time with the instrument in order to find my own voice, my own interpretation, so I could approach this repertoire with the same freshness that he did in 1936."

Before Casals began performing Bach's Suites in public concerts, they were regarded almost exclusively as pedagogical pieces. Friedrich Dotzauer and Sebastian Lee's études were preparatory for Bach, but Bach's own unaccompanied music was not deemed concert material until Casals changed that almost single-handedly. Peled continues that legacy with this album recorded in June 2018 in Spencerville, MD with engineer Norbert Kraft.

Cellist Amit Peled, a musician of profound artistry and charismatic stage presence, is acclaimed worldwide as one of the most exciting and virtuosic instrumentalists on the concert stage today. At 6'5" tall, Peled started life as a basketball player and was called "larger than life" and "Jacqueline du Pré in a farmer's body" when he enveloped his cello. Peled strives to break down the barriers of the concert hall, about which The Baltimore Sun wrote, "His amiable and inviting personality is exactly the type everyone says we'll need more of if classical music is to survive." Peled performs on the Pablo Casals 1733 Goffriller cello, which was loaned to him personally by Casals' widow Marta Casals Istomin.

Highlights of Peled's 2018-2019 season include performances of the Saint-Saëns cello concerto at the Kennedy Center, performances of the Penderecki cello concerto with the Warsaw Philharmonic as part of the composer's 85 birthday celebration, a return to the Ravinia Festival in celebration of Peled's new recording of Brahms Cello Sonatas on the Casals cello, Bloch's Schelomo with the Bucharest Philharmonic; a return visit as a soloist to the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, and a European tour as a soloist with the Tel - Aviv Soloists. Peled also performs this season with the Apollo Symphony, Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Sinfonia, and Fairfax Symphony Orchestra.

Recent career highlights include Bach Suite cycles in the United States, Europe, and Israel; a Naxos release with the Tempest Trio (Ilya Kaler, violin; Amit Peled, cello; Alon Goldstein, piano); a debut collaboration with the Peabody Chamber Orchestra led by Maestra Marin Alsop; performances of the Shostakovich Cello Concerto and Penderecki's Second Cello Concerto conducted by the legendary Penderecki himself; Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata recorded on the Casals cello; and a worldwide musical celebration of Beethoven's Cello/Piano Sonatas to commemorate the composer's 250th anniversary.

In September 2017, Peled published a children's book, A Cello Named Pablo, written by Marni Fogelson and illustrated by Avi Katz. Funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign, it follows Peled's journey from the basketball courts of rural Israel to the world's great concert halls playing one of the most famous instruments of all time and continuing the legacy of Pablo Casals.

The Amit Peled Peabody Peled Cello Gang is composed of students from Peled's studio at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University, where he has taught since 2003 and was one of the youngest professors ever at a major conservatory. The students in the Peabody Cello Gang range in age from undergraduate freshmen to second year master's students, and the group comes together often to perform works written or arranged for cello ensemble. Peled and the Peabody Cello Gang also record in professional studios and tour regularly around the country, performing standard cello concerti with Peled as soloist and the Gang as orchestral accompaniment, as well as cello choir repertoire and more. Peled is also the founder, conductor, and artistic director of the Mt. Vernon Virtuosi, a chamber orchestra dedicated to launching the careers of recently graduated music students, which this year performs a three-program season in Washington DC, Virginia, and New York.

Peled has performed as a soloist with many of the world's top orchestras and in major concert halls such as Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York, Salle Gaveau in Paris, Wigmore Hall in London, Konzerthaus in Berlin, and Tel Aviv's Mann Auditorium. Of his enthusiastically received Alice Tully Hall concert debut performing the Hindemith Cello Concerto, The New York Times wrote that Peled produces a "glowing tone, a seductive timbre and an emotionally pointed approach to phrasing that made you want to hear him again."

Peled's extensive discography includes critically acclaimed CDs on the Naxos, Centaur, CAP, CTM, and Delos Labels. His release Casals Homage, which features the legendary 1915 Pablo Casals program, topped the iTunes charts in 2016. Peled and the Peabody Cello Gang released a cello ensemble album on Peled's own label CTM Classics in October 2017. His latest recording, To Brahms with Love... From the Cello of Pablo Casals, features Brahms' Cello Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2 performed with pianist Noreen Polera and was released on CAP Records in June 2018. The album was described by AllMusic as "[likely] composer-approved, more so than almost any other contemporary recording."

As an active chamber musician, Peled is a founding member of the famed Tempest Trio with pianist Alon Goldstein and violinist Ilya Kaler. Their Dvo?ák CD on Naxos has been described as "The best 'Dumky' on disk ever!" by Fanfare Magazine. Peled frequently performs and gives master classes at prestigious summer music festivals such as the Marlboro Music Festival, Newport Music Festival, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Heifetz International Music Institute, Schleswig Holstein and Euro Arts Festivals in Germany, Gotland Festival in Sweden, Prussia Cove Festival in England, The Violoncello Forum in Spain, and Keshet Eilon Festival in Israel, among others. For more information, visit www.amitpeled.com