"A great piece of art” Peled serenades with Historic Instrument of Pablo Casals (video)
By Irma de Jong
How the musician and the Pablo Casals cello came together
At a very young age, Amit fell in love with a girl that played the cello. He decided to impress her and started learning this instrument as well. His parents gave him a cassette tape of a famous cellist and with those beautiful sounds, he fell asleep every night, not knowing that 25 years later he would hold that same cello, played on the cassette, in his hands….
Now Amit Peled moves worldwide audiences with his playing and the wonderful sound of the historic cello of Pablo Casals' cello, that belong among the most famous instruments in the world. Mrs Marta Casals Istomin, the widow of Maestro Casals, personally handed him the instrument, a Goffriler ca. 1733.
Amit Peled and the Pablo Casals cello
At 6’5″ tall, Peled started life as a basketball player and was called “larger than life” when he enveloped his cello and “Jacqueline du Pré in a farmer’s body.” Amit Peled often surprises audiences with the ways he breaks down barriers between performers and the public, making classical music more accessible to wider audiences.
“Peled did a lot of joking in remarks to the audience. His amiable and inviting personality is exactly the type everyone says we’ll need more of if classical music is to survive.”
Peled has performed and is a busy soloist with many orchestras and in the world’s major concert halls. Amit Peled is a cello Professor for iClassical Academy is was chosen among "Musical America's 30 Professionals of the Year 2015."
Watch his story
From the United States to Europe to the Middle East and Asia, Israeli cellist Amit Peled – a musician of profound artistry and charismatic stage presence – is acclaimed as one of the most exciting instrumentalists on the concert stage today. Peled has performed and is a busy soloist with many orchestras and in the world’s major concert halls such as Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall, New York; Salle Gaveau, Paris; Wigmore Hall, London; Konzerthaus, Berlin; and Tel Aviv’s Mann Auditorium.
Amit Peled often surprises audiences with the ways he breaks down barriers between performers and the public, making classical music more accessible to wider audiences.