DIRECTORIO / BIBLIOTECA DE VIOLONCELLISTAS HISTORICOS FAMOSOS

Apellidos empezando con U-V

** Alexander Uber
1783 – 1824
Germany
Important Activity:
Kapellmeister to Prince Carolath.
Music/Publications:  
Own original compositions, including a cello concerto.
Anecdotes:
* Pupil of Johann Zacharias.
* Many tours. Resided in Basle, before returning to native town. 
* Also competent on violin. 

** Carl Udel
1844 – 1927
Croatia
Important Activity:
Principal cello Pesth Opera Orchestra.  Member Vienna Opera Orchestra. Professor Vienna conservatoire.
Anecdotes:
* pupil of Schlesinger.
* later had problems with a hand injury, and dedicated himself to teaching.

** Otto Urack
1884 – 1963
Germany, later U.S.A., and after 1916 again back to Germany.
Important Activity:
Principal cello Berlin Royal Opera House. Principal cello Bayreuth Festival Orchestra.  Principal cello (and Associate Conductor) Boston Symphony Orchestra (1912-14). Conductor Boston Pops Concerts.
Once again in Germany, largely a conducting career (including Staatskapelle Dresden, and the State Opera of Saxony).
Music/Publications:
own original works including ‘Fantasia for Orchestra (premiere Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra), Symphony No.1 (prem. Boston Symphony Orchestra).   In the 1930 s composed film music.
Anecdotes:
* he came from a Hungarian family.
* both cellist and pianist. Also keen student of harmony, composition etc. Studied cello with Robert Hausmann.
* Other conducting  included the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Stadttheater of Barman-Elberfeld (later renamed Wuppertal), Stuttgart.
INFORMATION  BY  TERRY KING

** Antonio (Lotavio) Vandini1690 – 1778Italy (later Czech)
Important Activity:
Principal cello Church of St. Anthony (Padua). Principal cello Bergamo Cathedral Orchestra.  Prague in service of  Count of Kinsky. Later returned to Padua.
Dedications:
2 cello concertos by Tartini. 
Music/Publications:  
Own original works, including 2 well-known cello sonatas. One of first cellists to regularly use ‘thumb position’ !
Friendships: 
Tartini.   

** Bedrik Vaska
1875 - 1978
Czech (later USA)
Important Activity:
He was the founder of, and had a long association with the Ševčik Quartet (1899-1911). He was a member of the cello section of Warsaw Philharmonic and performed with the Bohemian Trio and the New York String Quartet. He was on the faculty of Prague Conservatory, Conservatory of Warsaw and the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester.
Anecdotes:
* He studied in Prague and the Conservatory at Frankfurt. He was a pupil of Antonín Dvořák, and where at the Prague Conservatory where he met three other pupils of Dvořák – Oscar Nedbal, Josef Suk, and Vítězslav Novák. Vaška was known to be the last living pupil of Dvořák. In the cello he studied with Becker and Cossman
* He came to the United States in 1911.

** Olive-Charlier Vaslin
1794 — 1889
France
Important Activity:
Member Orchestra of Théâtre Variétés. Opera Orchestra Paris. Professor Paris Conservatoire.
Music/Publications:  
Wrote a cello treatise
Anecdotes :
* pupil of Baudiot.

** Ivan Večtomov
1902 – 1981
Czech
Important Activity:
Member Prague Quartet. Principal cello German Philharmonic Orchestra of Prague. Principal cello Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.
Premieres:  
Martinu – Concertino in C for solo cello and wind/brass ensemble.  
Anecdotes:
* pupil of Fr. Hegenbarta and Hans Wihan (Prague Conservatoire), and Diran Alexanian (in Paris). 
* father of Sasha Večtomov

** Saša (or Sasha, or Alexandr) Večtomov
1930 – 1989
Czech
Important Activity:
Czech Trio.  Professor Prague Conservatoire.
* son of Ivan Večtomov

** Luigi Venzano
1815 – 1878
Italy
Important Activity:
Principal cello Carlo Felice Theatre (Genoa), and professor at Conservatorium.
Music/Publications: 
 Own original pieces, mainly popular music.  

** Ernest [Jules-Joseph-Ernest] Vieuxtemps
1832 – 1896
Belgium
Important Activity:
Principal cello Italian Opera Orchestra, London.  Principal cello Halle Orchestra, Manchester.
Anecdotes:
* younger brother of celebrated violin virtuoso Henri Vieuxtemps.
* he played in the inaugural concert of the Hallé orchestra in 1858 in Manchester, leading the cello section

** George Vikár
???? - ????
Hungary
Important Activity:
Principal cello Budapest Folk Opera Orchestra. Professor National Conservatory, Budapest.
Anecdotes:
* was an important pupil of Popper.
* It was Vikár who collected up various of Popper’s cadenzas, and published them as a volume in Vienna (c.1924, Universal Edition).

** Heitor Villa-Lobos
1887 – 1959
Brazil (later France)
Important Activity:
Apart from well-known composer was also a most competent cellist!
He developed the notion that the purity of Bach’s music blended splendidly with the native rhythms of the Amazon peoples.

** ?. Virgili
1780 – 1829
Bavaria
Service Hofkapelle Munich
Anecdotes:
* Pupil of Anton Schwarz

** Giovanni Battista Vitali
1632  - 1692
Italy  
Important Activity:
Founding member in the Academia Filarmonica of Bologna, Chapel San Petronio (Bologna)
Anecdotes:
* Cellist, violinist and composer, father to violinist Tomaso Antonio Vitali.

** Cornelius van Vliet
1886 – 1963
Holland
Important Activity:
Van Vliet played with the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam and as principal cellist in orchestras in Leipzig and Prague before moving to the United States in 1911. Member of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra; National Symphony Orchestra (1919-1921); New York Philharmonic (1921-1939); New York Trio (1919-1923); Van Vliet Trio (1930s); Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.  In 1919, Van Vliet formed the New York Trio with violinist Scipione Guidi and pianist Clarence Adler. He would later form the Van Vliet Trio with violinist Charles Liohter and pianist Jerome Rappaport, which toured in the 1930s. He joined the music faculty of the University of Colorado, retiring in 1953.
Anecdotes:
* He began his training in Rotterdam under Oskar Eberle and in Amsterdam under the renowned Dutch cellist and pedagogue Isaac Mossel.
* In March 1922, he performed as soloist in Eugen d’Albert’s Cello Concerto with the New York Philharmonic, under Willem Mengelberg.

** Carl Louis Voigt (occasionally given as Carl Ludwig)
1792 – 1831
Germany
Important Activity:
Member Gewandhaus Orchestra, Leipzig.
Music/Publications:  
Own original cello pieces (of no great quality)
Anecdotes:  
* Pupil of Dotzauer.

** Robert Volkmann
1815 – 1883
Germany
Important Activity:
A formerly most important (and well-liked) 19^th century German romantic composer, who had learnt the cello in his youth – and who loved the characteristic tone of the instrument! Amongst his works are a much under-rated cello concerto, and one of his 3 String Serenades largely features the orchestral principal cellist.

** Richard Vollrath
1848 - ????
Germany
Important Activity:
Member Royal Orchestra of Ems.  Member Mannsfeld Irchestra, Dresden.  Principal cello Wiesbaden Orchestra.  Principal cello Mainz Municipal Orchestra.
Anecdotes:
* pupil of Fr. Grutzmacher.  
* an appreciated teacher