Grammy®-nominated cellist Terry King, acclaimed as “A wonderful cellist"…"a master player" …"a master technician"… Following his debut, The New York Times proclaimed that his playing "could not be faulted…playing with relish and technical aplomb."
As a protégé of the legendary Gregor Piatigorsky, he served as his assistant in the famed master classes at the University of Southern California. King wrote a highly praised biography Gregor Piatigorsky: The Life and Career of the Virtuoso Cellist (McFarland, 2010)
King is a devoted teacher - with students placed worldwide in orchestras and in the teaching profession - as well as a unique cellist, chamber musician and conductor. Among his students is Gold Medalist in the XIII Tchaikovsky Competition Sergey Antonov. King is the first American teacher of a Tchaikovsky competition Gold Medalist in cello
His repertoire features the classic works for cello including unknown masterworks he has found throughout the world. Many prominent American composers have written works for King including Roy Harris, Paul Creston, Lou Harrison, and Otto Luening; he has also premiered solo works by Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, Henry Cowell, Miklós Rózsa and Lukas Foss. Mr. King is a member of the Mirecourt Trio, specialists in new repertoire, and has served on the faculties of the San Francisco Conservatory, UC Berkeley, California State University at Fullerton, Grinnell College, and the University of Iowa. He currently teaches at both the Longy School of Music of Bard College and the Hartt School, University of Hartford. In the summer months he teaches at the Castleman Quartet Program and is Artistic Director of LyricaBoston of which its LyricaFest chamber music program brings together highly talented young professionals throughout the world.
His recording of the complete Mendelssohn works was praised in Fanfare Magazine, "of all versions this is the most consistently thought out and expressively realized…intensely poetic" and was also the preferred recording mentioned on the nationally syndicated radio program, "First Hearing." His groundbreaking series CELLO AMERICA has been met with similar praise worldwide. Terry King has recorded for labels too numerous to list here, but include Sony, Music and Arts, ABC, MCA, A&M, Varese Sarabande, Albany and Bay Cities.