William Pleeth

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (July 2006)

William Pleeth (12 January 1916–6 April 1999) was a British cellist and an eminent teacher of the cello. He is probably best known as the teacher of Jacqueline du Pré.

Born in London to an Polish emigre family, Pleeth showed his talent as a cellist by age 7. By the time he was 15 years old, he had learned all the Bach Suites, all the Piatti Caprices, and 32 concertos, 24 of which he had memorized. He studied at the London Cello School and then in Leipzig with Julius Klengel who also taught Emanuel Feuermann and Gregor Piatigorsky.

Pleeth performed as a soloist with orchestras but preferred chamber music. Pleeth organized the Allegri String Quartet in 1952. Pleeth began teaching at the Menuhin School in 1977. He is also the author of the book "Cello" in the Menuhin instrument guides.

He is the father of cellist Anthony Pleeth.