Frans Helmerson (born 1945) is a Swedish cellist, pedagogue, and conductor.

Biography

Helmerson was born in 1945 and by the age of 8 began playing

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

. Later on, he studied with Guido Vecchi in Götheborg, Giuseppe Selmi in Rome, and with William Pleeth in London. His first concert was in Stockholm, Sweden after which he went on to travel throughout

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

. He has performed under many conductors, including Sir Colin Davis, Maxim Shostakovich, Neemi Järvi, Evgeny Svetlanov, Gennadi Roshdestvensky, Kurt Sanderling, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Rostropovich, Herbert Blomstedt, Seiji Ozawa, Yuri Temirkanov und Esa-Pekka Salonen and many others. In 2002 he founded the

Michelangelo String Quartet Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was in ...

in which he regularly performs worldwide, together with

Mihaela Martin Mihaela is a female given name of Hebrew origin, very common in Romania. Notable people with the name include: *Mihaela Bene (born 1973), Romanian sprint canoer * Mihaela Botezan (born 1976), Romanian long-distance runner * Mihaela Buzărnescu (bo ...

Daniel Austrich Daniel Austrich (born 1984) is a Russian classical musician, who is active as a conductor, violinist, violist, and a pedagogue. Early life and education Austrich was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. He studied with Alla Aranovskaya in St.Petersbur ...

and Nobuko Imai. Helmerson for many years has taught at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, as well as at Escuela Superior Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid. He was also guest professor at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, and currently teaches at the Barenboim–Said Akademie in Berlin and the Kronberg Academy in Frankfurt. His recording of the ''Dvorak Concerto'' at the

BIS Records BIS Records is a record label founded in 1973 by Robert von Bahr. It is located in Åkersberga, Sweden. BIS focuses on European classical music, classical music, both Contemporary classical music, contemporary and Early music, early, especially ...

label was praised by critics as the best classical recording available on the market. Also to a great critical acclaim, he released two cello concertos by Shostakovich, along with conductor Valery Polyansky and the

Russian State Symphony Capella Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

References

1945 births Living people Swedish cellists Swedish conductors (music) Male conductors (music) 21st-century conductors (music) Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin faculty 21st-century Swedish male musicians 21st-century cellists {{Cellist-stub