Carter Brey

Cello

Carter Brey was appointed Principal Cellist of the New York Philharmonic in 1996. He rose to international attention in 1981 as a prizewinner in the Rostropovich International Cello Competition. Subsequent appearances with Rostropovich and the National Symphony Orchestra were unanimously praised. The winner of the Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Prize, Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Young Concert Artists’ Michaels Award and other honors, he also was the first musician to win the Arts Council of America’s Performing Arts Prize. Mr. Brey has appeared as soloist with virtually all the major orchestras in the United States, and has performed under the batons of Claudio Abbado, Semyon Bychkov, Sergiu Comissiona, Christoph von Dohnanyi, and other prominent conductors. In 1990, he was featured in a concert with cellist Yo-Yo Ma at Avery Fisher Hall that was broadcast via "Live From Lincoln Center." His chamber-music career is equally distinguished; he has made regular appearances with the Tokyo and Emerson string quartets as well as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Spoleto festivals in the U.S. and Italy, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music and La Jolla Chamber Music festivals, among many others. He partakes in an ongoing, acclaimed series of duo recitals with pianist Christopher O’Riley. Together they have recorded "The Latin American Album," a disc of compositions from South America and Mexico by Helicon Records. Another Brey CD, on Decca’s Argo label, features violinist Pamela Frank and violist Paul Neubauer in Aaron Jay Kernis’ "Still Movement with Hymn." Mr. Brey was educated at the Peabody Institute, where he studied with Laurence Lesser and Stephen Kates, and at Yale University, where he studied with Aldo Parisot, and where he was a Wardell Fellow and a Houpt Scholar.