David Starkweather

David Starkweather is a professor of cello at The University of Georgia Hodgson School of Music where he has been on the faculty since 1983. He was awarded a certificate of merit as a semifinalist in the 1986 Tchaikovsky Competition. Starkweather grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. He attended the Eastman School of Music, followed by graduate studies with cellist Bernard Greenhouse at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, earning a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 1983. In 1985 Starkweather spent six months in Switzerland with Pierre Fournier, receiving the French cellist's accolade, "Pure talent as an interpreter at the devotion of music and one of the best cellists of his generation." Two CDs with pianist Evgeny Rivkin are available on iTunes and CDBaby, featuring sonatas by Shostakovich, Rachmaninov, Beethoven, Brahms, and Britten. Starkweather’s publications include articles in American String Teacher and Strings, and an edition of two Locatelli sonatas published by Artaria Editions, Wellington, New Zealand. His 3-DVD set of the Bach Six Suites is available from Ludwig Music. The cello he has played since 1975 is a Jean Baptiste Vuillaume from c. 1830.