Samuel H Magill

Biography

Cellist Samuel Magill’s first Naxos CD of Vernon Duke’s
Cello Concerto was hailed as “flat-out magnificent” by the
American Record Guide. Since that 2007 release, he has
recorded 17 additional CDs. In 2014 The Strad Magazine
raved about Magill’s “sumptuous tone” in his 2014 recital
at New York’s Bargemusic series, in which he and Beth
Levin played the rarely heard Czerny arrangement of
Beethoven’s Kreutzer Violin Sonata. This led to their 2016
Navona CD which includes the Kreutzer and the Solo
Cello Sonata by Artur Schnabel. Classics Today wrote of
“..Magill’s superb technique, range of color, and intelligent
pacing…”.
Mr Magill has appeared as soloist throughout France,
Belgium, Japan and the U.S., including performances of
both the Schumann Concerto and the Brahms Double
Concerto in Tokyo’s famed Suntory Hall, and the Haydn D
Major Concerto in Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. Magill
presented annual recitals from 1994 until 2019 at Lincoln
Center’s New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
He is a co-founder, with flutist Lucian Rinando and harpist
Mélanie Genin, of the flute, cello, and harp trio Sono
Auros. They made their New York debut at Carnegie Hall’s
Weill Hall to critical acclaim. Strings Magazine declared
them “masters of their instruments.”
A pupil of the late Zara Nelsova, Magill is the former
Associate Principal Cello with the Metropolitan Opera
Orchestra, and a former member of both the Houston and
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras. Mr. Magill attended the
University of North Carolina School of the Arts for high
school and was a student of the late Irving Klein. He earned his B.M. degree at the Peabody Institute and his M.M. from Rice University.