Fred Sherry

Fred Sherry has introduced audiences on five continents and all fifty United States to the music of our time for over five decades. He was a founding member of Tashi and Speculum Musicae, Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and has been a member of the Group for Contemporary Music, Berio’s Juilliard Ensemble and the Galimir String Quartet. He has also enjoyed a close collaboration with jazz pianist and composer Chick Corea.

Elliott Carter, Mario Davidovsky, Steve Mackey, David Rakowski, Somei Satoh, Charles Wuorinen and John Zorn have written concertos for Sherry which he has performed with orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, Municipal Orchestra of Buenos Aires, BBC Symphony Orchestra, New York CIty Ballet, Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, New World Symphony, and RAI Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale. He has premiered solo and chamber works dedicated to him by Milton Babbitt, Derek Bermel, Jason Eckardt, Lukas Foss, Oliver Knussen, Peter Lieberson, Donald Martino and Toru Takemitsu among others, and has appeared at Festivals including Aldeburgh, Casals, Tanglewood, Spoleto, Toru Takemitsu’s Music Today, Chamber Music Northwest, OK Mozart, Ravinia, and Mostly Mozart.

Fred Sherry created the series “Bach Cantata Sundays” at St. Ann’s Church and conceived and directed the acclaimed “Arnold Schoenberg: Conservative Radical” series at Merkin Concert Hall. He was the creator and director of “A Great Day in New York,” the groundbreaking festival featuring 52 living composers presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Merkin Concert Hall.

Mr. Sherry’s vast discography encompasses a wide range of classic and modern repertoire. He has been soloist and “sideman” on hundreds of commercial and esoteric recordings for RCA, Columbia, Vanguard, CRI, Albany, Bridge, ECM, New World, Delos, Naxos, Tzadik and others. Mr. Sherry was the organizer for Robert Craft’s New York recording sessions from 1995-2012, performing as cellist and forming groups of brilliant and dedicated musicians. This longstanding collaboration produced celebrated performances of the Schoenberg Cello Concerto, all four String Quartets and the String Quartet Concerto as well as major works by Stravinsky and Webern.

Mr. Sherry has presented master classes at Curtis Institute of Music, McGill University, Indiana University, and was the Director of the Contemporary Performance Institute at the Composers Conference from 2015-2019. He has served on international juries including the Premio Paolo Borciani String Quartet Competition in Italy, OSM Standard Life Competition in Montreal and Young Concert Artists in New York.

Fred Sherry’s book 25 Bach Duets from the Cantatas was published by Boosey & Hawkes in 2011, the revised edition was released in 2019. C.F. Peters unveiled his treatise on contemporary string playing, A Grand Tour of Cello Technique, in 2018.