Kim Cook's Cello Studio

        Welcome to the cello studio at Penn State! The string program has enrolled excellent students from all over the United States, as well as from Germany, Bulgaria, Israel, Jordan, Taiwan, China, Colombia, and Brazil. The cello studio is vibrant, with weekly performance classes and guest master classes. Cello students have won the Penn State Concerto Competition four times in the past six years, resulting in performances of the Rococo Variations by Tchaikovsky, and concertos by Dvorak, Elgar, and Saint-Saens with the Penn State Philharmonic. 

        Recently, we have hosted cello master classes with Anner Bylsma, Paul Katz, Colin Carr,(see below) and chamber music classes with members of the Tokyo Quartet, Kronos Quartet, and Pinchas Zuckerman. This year, our cello choir has 22 members. Graduates of the cello studio have been offered assistantships from many prestigious institutions, and former students are currently employed as performers and teachers in Sweden, Germany, Taiwan, Brazil, and the United States.

Master Class

     Cellist Brian Towndrow, graduate student of Kim Cook, plays a movement of the Suite No. 2 by Max Reger for master cellist Colin Carr at the Penn State Music Building Recital Hall in February of 2000.

Kim Cook gives masterclasses in Nanjing, China:

Lesson

        Perfecting his form during his first lesson, Andrew Simpson follows the example of Professor Kim Cook. In addition to daily and weekly lessons, Simpson performed as a soloist and as a member of a string quartet.