Cello Chat with Host Dr. Benjamin Whitcomb and guest Stefan Kartman
About the Episode
This week I sit down with Professor of Cello at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Stefan Kartman. Learn more about him at: https://www.cellokartman.com or through his university page: https://uwm.edu/arts/directory/kartman-stefan/
Meet the Guest
Stefan Kartman has been studying cello for the past 50 years and teaching for the past 30. His is a lifetime of devotion to the highest level of artistic and technical achievement with the greatest of musical instruments - the cello. Among his cello teachers have been Harvey Shapiro, Zara Nelsova, Bernard Greenhouse, Anthony Cook, and Alan Harris. Their collective teaching and art represent the most important legacy of Europe's contribution to art music on the cello. Through his teacher's hands passed the traditions of the great masters of the 19th and 20th centuries. Pedagogical lineage is important. Kartman's grand-teachers performed with Brahms, Saint Saens, Sergei Rachmaninov, Richard Strauss and other famous musicians of the 19th century. In particular, Johannes Brahms sent musical emissaries like Willem Willeke (Shapiro's teacher) and Franz Kneisel to the "New World" - America to bring the art of chamber music to the United States. Dr. Kartman's chamber music teachers have been Joseph Fuchs, members of the Guarneri and Juilliard String Quartets and the Beaux Arts Piano Trio.