Orlando Cole Dies at 101
Former faculty member of the Curtis Institute of Music
Cellist Orlando Cole, an alumnus of the inaugural student body and former faculty member of the Curtis Institute of Music, has died. He was 101. Cole, who studied at Curtis from 1924 to 1934 and taught there from 1938 to 2005, was a founding member of the Curtis String Quartet (1932–1981), which has included fellow Curtis graduates violinists Jascha Brodsky and Mehi Mehta, and violist Max Aronoff. The quartet is counted by Grove Music Online as “among the most prominent of the professional groups” in chamber orchestras and small ensembles established in Philadelphia. Cole also worked with Samuel Barber, who had studied at Curtis as well, and premiered the composer’s Cello Sonata (1932), with the composer at the piano, and String Quartet (1936). Cellist Lorne Munroe, who studied under Cole, recalled his teacher’s stringent adherence to the composer’s wishes in an obituary in the Philadelphia Inquirer: “He believed that you play what the composer wrote, even if it was difficult or awkward.”
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