Aldo Parisot

Aldo Simoes Parisot (September 30, 1918 – December 29, 2018) was a Brazilian-born American cellist and cello teacher. He was first a member of the Juilliard School faculty, and then went on to serve as a music professor at the Yale School of Music for sixty years (1958 to 2018), the longest-serving member of that school's faculty ever.

Born in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, Parisot began studying cello at age seven with his stepfather, Tomazzo Babini. From Babini, he learned the importance of playing without unnecessary tension—something he credits as the foundation for the rest of his career. At the age of 12 he gave his professional debut as a cellist. From there, he moved on to become principal cellist of the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra in Rio de Janeiro. During one of the concerts, Carleton Sprague Smith, the attaché to the American embassy was in attendance. Upon witnessing Parisot's performance of Brahms's Double Concerto with violinist Ricardo Odnoposoff, he proceeded to go backstage and invited Parisot to attend a party thrown for Yehudi Menuhin. At the party, Smith told Parisot he would arrange for Parisot to study at the Curtis Institute of Music with Emanuel Feuermann. However, Feuermann died unexpectedly on May 25, 1942, three months before Parisot's intended arrival in the US.

Sometime later, Smith again approached Parisot, this time with an offer to pursue studies of music theory and chamber music at Yale University on scholarship. Accommodations were to be made such that Parisot could avoid taking lessons, as Feuermann was the only one Parisot was interested in studying with. Parisot accepted, and began as a "special student" at Yale in 1946. Parisot's theory professor at Yale was Paul Hindemith, with whom Parisot became close friends. However, after an argument concerning a missed rehearsal, the two got into a fight—Parisot exclaiming to Hindemith "You and your orchestra can go to hell!". A representative of the student union visited him and warned him that he could be deported. Hindemith and Parisot soon after resolved the misunderstanding.

At age 26, during the start of his studies at Yale, he made his United States debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Music Festival. He embarked on his first European tour the following year. Following this, he earned a degree from Yale School of Music and toured throughout the United States, Canada, and South America. According to Margaret Campbell, in her book The Great Cellists, "Parisot was a brilliant soloist, chamber musician and teacher who based his ideas on the playing of Emanuel Feuermann."

In the 1950s Parisot appeared in numerous solo concerts and soloed in many concertos with orchestras. During this time, he also premiered works by composers such as Heitor Villa-Lobos, Camargo Guarnieri, Jose Siqueira, Quincy Porter, Mel Powell, Cláudio Santoro, Donald Martino as well as other works that were written and dedicated to him. He was recognized for his musicality, temperament and virtuoso playing as well as his teaching abilities.

Parisot gave first performances of composers such as Carmago Guarnieri, Quincy Porter, Alvin Etler, Claudio Santoro, Joan Panetti, Ezra Laderman, Yehudi Wyner, and Heitor Villa-Lobos always trying to enlarge the cello repertoire. Villa-Lobos composed his Cello Concerto No. 2 for Parisot, and dedicated the concerto to him. Parisot gave the first performance at his debut with the New York Philharmonic. Orchestras such as the Amsterdam, Berlin, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Munich, Paris, Pittsburgh, Rio de Janeiro, Stockholm, Vienna and Warsaw, have played with him with prestigious conductors such as Leopold Stokowski, John Barbirolli, Pierre-Michel Le Conte, Leonard Bernstein, Eleazar de Carvalho, Zubin Mehta, Claude Monteux, Paul Paray, Victor de Sabata, Sawallisch, Hindemith, and Heitor Villa-Lobos. In this period, he was also the cellist with the Yale Quartet, with Broadus Erle, Syoko Aki and Walter Trampler.

From 1956 to 1996, Parisot owned the De Munck Stradivarius.

In 1966, he was a soloist with the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, in the Naumburg Bandshell, Central Park, in the summer series.