About Harry Wimmer

Harry Wimmer has a wide-ranging career as concert cellist, master teacher and conductor. The creation of this innovative Web Site is a natural extension of a life spent performing and sharing music with esteemed colleagues and talented young musicians. After early studies in his native Vienna, Harry Wimmer completed his professional training at the Juilliard School with the now legendary Leonard Rose, making his prize-winning American debut with the New York Little Orchestra Society playing the Elgar Concerto. Shortly thereafter, at Fordham University, he produced, wrote and performed his own radio series, "Cellist's Notebook", heard coast-to-coast on Public Radio stations. He treasures testimonial letters received around that time from Pablo Casals and Bruno Walter. In l960 he gave the première of the Bartók Cello Concerto as part of a New York concert. He performed a choreographed version of Bloch's Schelomo several times with orchestra at Madison Square Garden and was featured in an NBC telecast of a major Shostakovich ballet from the stage of Radio City Music Hall, where he has appeared on many occasions as cello soloist. For several seasons he was the cello soloist with the Handel Society in its acclaimed Carnegie Hall series of neglected Handel operas and oratorios. He participated in the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, playing solo Bach at a Puerto Rico Conservatory concert. He has performed the monumental Six Solo Cello Suites by Bach at Christ Church Cathedral in Victoria, Canada. As a member of various chamber groups, Mr. Wimmer has appeared at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., Town Hall, New York, the Fontainebleau, France Music Festival etc. etc.. On the chamber music faculty of the Aspen Music School for twelve summers, he created "Chamber Music-in-the-Round" master classes, exploring music for all kinds of wind, string, keyboard and vocal combinations. In l988 he was appointed Chamber Music Coordinator of the Victoria International Music Festival near Vancouver, Canada, where he performed chamber music concerts with such artists as Daniel Heifetz, Eric Shumsky and Ronald Turini, some carried on radio across the continent by the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC). In December l992 he was invited to appear in a special chamber music concert at the Sala Casals, Don Pablo's last residence on the outskirts of San Juan, P.R. For six summers, as a member of the Sevenars Festival Trio, he traversed much of the major piano trio and cello-piano repertoire. Appointed sonata coaching coordinator at the Heifetz International Summer Music Institute, first held in Annapolis, Maryland and later relocated to scenic Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, he was active performing, teaching and conducting special events there fior three summers from 2000. Harry Wimmer has enjoyed his frequent "crossovers" into the popular and jazz music genres, which have broadened his horizons enormously. He has backed up the likes of Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Liza Minnelli, John Lennon and Paul McCartney of the Beatles, Lionel Hampton and many others both in concert and in recordings. He invented a fiberglas electric cello capable of electronically mixed tonal effects, playing it on many recording sessions. As conductor, Harry Wimmer has had great success in inspiring advanced young (high school and college-age) musicians to perform with vitality and enthusiasm. He founded the Aspen String Ensemble as part of the Aspen Summer Music Festival, and has performed the major string-chamber orchestra repertoire with this group with the help of such illustrious guests as violinist Itzhak Perlman, mezzo-soprano Jan de Gaetani and British composer Sir Michael Tippett. In l991 he toured throughout Puerto Rico conducting the Youth Chamber Orchestra of the Americas. He organized the JISA String Orchestra as a component of the Victoria, B.C. International Music Festival, conducting it to much critical acclaim for six summers through 1994. Teaching has always been at the heart of Harry Wimmer's career, whether it has taken the form of private lessons at the Fontainebleau Conservatoire Américain or the Aspen Music School, writing radio scripts on the aesthetics of performance, or conducting an All-State Honors String Festival in Nebraska. He was Co-Director, with his wife, the prominent violinist and teacher Shirley Givens, of the first Aspen String Workshop, Adjunct Professor at the Fontainebleau Music School in summers l982-3, and has given master classes at Nebraska Wesleyan University, the Aspen Music School and Peabody Conservatory, as well as lecture-demonstrations on the Bach suites at the Johannesen Music School in Victoria, Canada. Invited to the AUSTA 2000 Conference, he spent several exciting weeks in Melbourne and Sydney hearing scores of Australian students in master classes and conducting string orchestras. He spent a most productive week in Aguascalientes, Mexico, where he helped to refocus some of the string teaching approaches at the behest of the regional Minister of Culture as some of his cello books were being tested in a Spanish version. On two more recent visits he gave cello master classes helping the students of the El Paso, Texas Youth Orchestra founded by the visionary conductor-pianist Benjamin Loeb. Summer 2008 found Harry Wimmer at two International Music Festivals in Germany, one at Birklehof in In the Black Forest and the other in Sulzbach, Bavaria. In summer 2009 he performed and gave master classes at the InterHarmony Festival held at San Francisco State University.. He returned to the two German InterHarmony festivals in Summer 2011 and was teaching and coaching in Arcidosso,Tuscany, Italy during 2012 and again in Germany in 2013. Harry Wimmer's main teaching activity is still centered around his bustling New York studio. Here new ideas are constantly explored and sifted, and books, such as the ongoing The Joy Of Cello Playing series were born. And now the expanded Cyber-New York Studio can be reached by interested musicians around the globe . . . Also, in 2009 the Harry Wimmer Music Arrangements Series was published by Arioso Press and is distributed by Shar Products of Ann Arbor, Michigan. It includes his new cello transcription of Brahms' glorious Clarinet/Viola Sonata in E Flat. Mr.Wimmer can be heard on YouTube performing the Brahms and other cello works. Just off the press is "Adventures in Cello Country," Harry Wimmer's new Book Series for the Young Cellist, with the 6 First Year sections just published by Arioso Press. In the course of a seven - year cello performance project at the New York Symphony Space Thalia Theater called "From Soup to Nuts!",Harry Wimmer has expanded the boundaries of the traditional recital, bringing it into the 21st Century by means of humorous sketches and imaginary interviews as well as a wide variety of thrilling music. Last not least, there is the ongoing Harry's CelloBlog, whose theme is "beyond cello technique". HomeStudio TourAsk Harry WimmerThe Joy of Cello Playing Books Order all books online from: sharmusic.com

This site created and maintained by Harry Wimmer (hwimmer@wimmercello.com). Thanks to Shirley Givens (sgivens@juilliard.edu) for her imaginative illustrations. Thanks to Kevin Wimmer (kwimmer@aol.com) for his selfless and expert assistance.

Design and content ©1999 - 2011 by Harry Wimmer. Artwork ©1999 - 2009 by Shirley Givens. All materials on this website are limited to personal, non-commercial use.