Andrei Pricope
Andrei Pricope (born in Bacău, Romania, in 1969) is a cellist of Romanian descent.
Early life and education
He grew up in Bucharest, Romania, and started playing the cello and piano at age ten, following in his father's footsteps (Eugen Pricope was a conductor and musicologist). Following studies at the Enescu Music High School in Bucharest, he went to England, where he graduated with honors from the Royal Northern College of Music in 1994.
Musical activity in Illinois
Pricope received his Masters of Music and Performer Certificate from Northern Illinois University (1996 and 1997, respectively) having studied with Marc Johnson of the Vermeer Quartet. He appeared in masterclasses with János Starker, Ralph Kirshbaum, and Irene Sharp, among many others. Pricope was Principal Cello with the Chicago Civic Orchestra (training orchestra of the Chicago Symphony), and has also served as guest principal cello for several American orchestras, including Green Bay Symphony, Rockford Symphony and Southwest Michigan Symphony. In these capacities, he performed under such conductors as Daniel Barenboim, Sir Georg Solti, Zubin Mehta, Christoph Eschenbach, and Pierre Boulez. As a chamber music performer, Pricope has performed extensively, including with members of the Chicago Symphony on Chicago's WFMT radio.
Pricope's cello transcriptions are published by Amati Music. They include Johann Sebastian Bach's Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Cello (orig. for violin) and Johannes Brahms' Violin and Viola Sonatas (arr. for cello). Amati Music also publishes reference works in cello pedagogy under Pricope's editorship, including Duport's Essai sur le doigté du violoncelle et la conduite de l'archet (1809) and Bernhard Romberg's Violoncell-Schule (1840). Pricope has also written Cello Basics, a comprehensive and detailed analysis of the techniques of cello playing, with hundreds of practice routines for warm-up, maintenance, teaching, and reference (2006).
Pricope continues to teach strings (mostly cello) in the Chicago area.