A pioneer and a visionary in the music world, cellist FRED SHERRY has introduced audiences on five continents and all fifty United States to the music of our time through his close association with today’s composers. Elliott Carter, Mario Davidovsky, Steven Mackey, David Rakowski, Somei Satoh, Charles Wuorinen and John Zorn have written concertos for Sherry which he has performed with orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, Municipal Orchestra of Buenos Aires, BBC Symphony Orchestra, New York City Ballet, Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, New World Symphony and RAI Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale. Mr. Sherry has premiered solo and chamber works dedicated to him by Milton Babbitt, Derek Bermel, Jason Eckardt, Lukas Foss, Oliver Knussen, Peter Lieberson, Donald Martino and Toru Takemitsu among others.
 
He has been a member of the Group for Contemporary Music, Luciano Berio’s Juilliard Ensemble, the Galimir String Quartet and a close collaborator with jazz pianist and composer Chick Corea. Mr. Sherry was a founding member of Speculum Musicae and Tashi. He has been a guest at festivals including the Aldeburgh Festival, Casals Festival, Tanglewood, Spoleto, Scotia Festival of Music, Toru Takemitsu’s Music Today, Chamber Music Northwest, OK Mozart, Ravinia and the Mostly Mozart Festival. He has been an active performer with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since the 1970s and was the Artistic Director from 1988 to 1992. Mr. Sherry is a member of the cello faculty of the Juilliard School, the Mannes College of Music and the Manhattan School of Music.
 
Fred Sherry created the series “Bach Cantata Sundays” at St. Ann’s Church and conceived and directed the acclaimed “Arnold Schoenberg: Conservative Radical” series at Merkin Concert Hall. He was the creator and director of “A Great Day in New York,” the groundbreaking festival featuring 52 living composers presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Merkin Concert Hall. Sherry played an important role in the White Pine Pictures documentary “Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould.”
 
In the vast scope of his recording career, Fred Sherry has been a soloist and “sideman” on hundreds of commercial and esoteric recordings on RCA, Columbia, Vanguard, CRI, Albany, Bridge, ECM, New World, Arabesque, Delos, Vox, Koch and Naxos. Mr. Sherry’s longstanding collaboration with Robert Craft has produced recordings of major works by Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Webern, including Sherry’s performance of the Schoenberg Cello Concerto. The Fred Sherry String Quartet recordings of the Schoenberg String Quartet Concerto and the String Quartets Nos. 3 and 4 were both nominated for a Grammy.
 
Sherry’s book “25 Bach Duets from the Cantatas” was released by Boosey & Hawkes in July 2011. It will be followed by the long-awaited treatise on contemporary string techniques.
 
Photo credit: Ben Esner