The great virtuoso cellist and distinguished teacher Janos Starker is recognised throughout the world as one of the supreme musicians of the twentieth century. Hallmarks of his performances and classes, given over the course of an extraordinary career spanning more than five decades, include peerless technical mastery, intensely expressive playing, and great communicative power. These qualities, combined with rare musical intelligence, have made Starker the subject of hundreds of major news stories, magazine articles and television documentaries, and his concerts have been broadcast around the globe on radio and television. He has had concertos written for him by David Baker, Antal Dorati, Bernard Heiden, Jean Martinon, Miklos Rozsa and Robert Starer; last year he gave the world premiere of a cello concerto by Chou Wen-chung in New York's Carnegie Hall with the American Composers Orchestra and Dennis Russell Davies.

Janos Starker, born in Budapest in 1924, came to the United States in 1948 where, prior to resuming his solo career in 1958, he held the principal cello chairs in three American orchestras including the Chicago Symphony under Reiner. During this period, having already won the Grand Prix du Disque in France for his Kodaly Unaccompanied Suite, Starker made his landmark recordings of the Bach Solo Suites for Mercury. These Bach Suites, re-released on CD in November 1991, nearly thirty years after their first issue, immediately climbed to the top ten in the American classical charts.

Maestro Starker's catalogue of recorded works now numbers more than 150 works. Recipient of a 1990 Grammy nomination for his tribute (on Delos) to the music of the Czech cellist and composer David Popper, Starker began recording for BMG Classics' RCA Victor Red Seal label in June 1990. Already released are Strauss's "Don Quixote" with Slatkin and the Bavarian Radio Symphony, the Dvorak and Bartok/Serly Concertos with Slatkin and the Saint Louis Symphony, the Schumann and Hindemith Concertos with the Bamberg Symphony and Dennis Russell Davies, three sonata discs, the most recent (Brahms and Schumann with Rudolf Buchbinder) released to celebrate his 70th birthday, and a fifth version of Bach's Solo Suites. Being prepared for release are the Elgar and Walton Concertos with Slatkin and the Philharmonia Orchestra.

When not touring or recording, Janos Starker, a Distinguished Professor at Indiana University in Bloomington, works in his studio in the School of Music where he has taught since 1958.