Samuel Magill

Name:	Samuel Magill
Location:	Greensboro United States 27410
Contact:	201.390.8765 Send Samuel Magill a message

Additional Info:

A member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York, Samuel Magill's recent Naxos CD of Franco Alfano’s Cello Sonata and Piano Trio was hailed on Gene Gaudette’s blog, Synaphaï, as one of the ten best CDs of 2009. Julian Haylock, writing in the November, 2009 The Strad, wrote that “Magill’s husky, dark timbre matches the Cello Sonata’s yearning intensity to perfection”.

From 1997 to 2005, Mr. Magill was Principal Cellist and featured soloist of the New York Symphonic Ensemble which tours Japan every summer, and performed most of the best known cello concertos in some of Japan’s most prestigious venues, such as performances of both the Schumann Concerto and the Brahms Double Concerto in Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. He has also been the featured soloist with the NYSE at Alice Tully Hall in New York, performing the Brahms with violinist Mischa Keylin. Panasonic has recorded live performances of the concerti of Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, and Dohnanyi.

In 1997 Mr. Magill’s trio, Elysian, were winners of the Artist International Award, which provided this unusual flute, cello and harp trio with a Carnegie Hall debut at Weill Recital Hall. They toured Costa Rica in 2000. Since 1994 he has given annual recitals at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at New York’s Lincoln Center. Mr. Magill has for many years specialized in forgotten music of Romantic and early 20th century composers. He has performed at the Bruno Walter works by Pierné, Schmitt, Rubinstein, Korngold, Cadman, Ireland, Stanford, Lajtha, Jongen, Ropartz, Malipiero and Alfano. He plays a cello made for him in 1992 by Wendy and Peter Moes.

Mr. Magill created the first ever recording of Vernon Duke’s Cello Concerto in Moscow in 2005. Published in 1946 under his original name Vladimir Dukelsky, this work was commissioned by Gregor Piatigorsky and the Boston Symphony. This Naxos CD was released in November of 2007 and has been very favorably reviewed by Gramophone Magazine, the B.B.C. Music Magazine, and the American Record Guide called Sam’s performance “flat-out magnificent”. His second CD for Naxos is a program of Franco Alfano’s magnificent Cello Sonata from 1925 paired with the sensational Concerto for piano trio, with Scott Dunn, pianist, and Elmira Darvarova, violinist. It was released in July of 2009.

Originally from North Carolina, Mr. Magill was educated at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and the Shepherd School of Music of Rice University. His principal teachers were Zara Nelsova, Laurence Lesser and Irving Klein. He was a member of both the Houston and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras and was Artist in Residence at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville.

Additional Specialisms:

Orchestral Playing, Solo Performance