DODGE, FRANK S. (b 1950 )Frank Dodge was born in Boston in 1950 and began studying the cello at the age of sixteen. His instructors were Jacobus Langendoen, Aldo Parisot, Pierre Fournier, Eberhard Finke and Maurice Gendron. He attended master-classes of Janos Starker and Mstislav Rostropovich. He received a BM from the New England Conservatory and a MM from Yale University. He founded the Strawbery Banke Chamber Music Festival, Inc. in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and was artistic director and cellist from 1969 to 1980.
Frank Dodge was a founding member of the Portsmouth Chamber Ensemble, winners in 1981 of the Artists International Competition in New York and frequent guests on series such as the Cleveland Museum of Art at University Circle, the Harvard Musical Association, Carnegie Recital Hall, Bay Chamber Concerts and the Machais Bay Chamber Concerts. He lived in New York from 1978 to 1982 as member of the Opera Orchestra of New York, the St Lukes Chamber Ensemble, and the Orchestra of Our Time, and as principal cellist of the Stanford Symphony. Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New Hampshire Commission on the Arts, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music, Inc. and the Greater Piscataqua Community Foundation supported his United States based endeavours. He moved to Berlin in 1982. A two year fellowship from the Frank Huntington Beebe Fund for Musicians in Boston and two Individual Artists Fellowships from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts assisted him with study abroad. From 1983 to 1993 he performed regularly with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and in 1984 Jesús Lopez Cobos invited him to become a member of the National Orchestra of Spain. A Highlands tour as principal cellist of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Jaime Laredo followed in the spring of 1985. He then returned to Berlin where he has lived since. He founded Spectrum Concerts Berlin in 1988. The concerts were recorded by Sender Freies Berlin for National Public Radio in Washington, D.C. His work in Berlin has been supported by the Ernst von Siemens Foundation in Munich, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Robert Helps Music Trust, the Körber Foundation, The Toch Society and the Koussevitzky Music Foundation.
Frank Dodge plays a cello by Antonio Casini dated 1676 from Modena.
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