Orlando Cole, the great American cellist born on Aug. 16, 1908, just celebrated his 100th birthday. His career has bridged two centuries of music-making.
A “who’s who” in the music world, Orlando Cole represents a tremendous link to the glorious past. In the early 1900s, the American public still depended on the more sophisticated European culture. It was a time when the great German photographer Alfred Stieglitz was busy promoting unknowns at the time, including Georgia O'Keefe and Amedeo Modigliani; a time when Debussy was still composing, Stravinsky was hardly discovered, and Matisse and Picasso were relatively unknown.
Cole’s father was a fine violinist in the Philadelphia Orchestra who played with the legendary Leopold Stokowski. Orlando Cole became a superb virtuoso after having studied with the great Felix Salmond and became his assistant, who taught among other cellists Leonard Rose, Frank Miller, and Alan Shulman. (Today we are familiar with the artistry of Yo Yo Ma, who studied with Rose who, in turn, worked closely with Cole—and both studied with Felix Salmond.)
Orlando Cole started the legendary Curtis Quartet, one of the greatest quartets of the past century. The Curtis Quartet pioneered during the pre-war years as the first American string quartet to tour Europe. Cole’s classmate and friend, Samuel Barber, first wrote for him the sonata op. 6. Barber wrote his quartet op. 11 as well, with its famous adagio, for the Curtis Quartet. The Curtis Quartet’s recordings are now collectors’ discs and are sadly difficult to find.
His Legacy
Orlando Cole also helped create great institutions. He was faculty at the Curtis Institute for 75 years. The institute was founded “to train exceptionally gifted young musicians for careers as performing artists on the highest professional level.” He essentially founded the New School of Music in Philadelphia now affiliated with Temple University.
