Robert Jesselson

About Robert

Robert Jesselson is Emeritus Carolina Distinguished Professor at USC, where he taught cello and played in the American Arts Trio and the Jesselson/Fugo Duo. In 2013 he was named as the Governor’s Professor of the Year. Dr. Jesselson has performed in recital and with orchestras in Europe, Asia, South America, and the United States, and has participated in the Music Festivals at Nice (France), Granada (Spain), Santiago (Spain), Aspen (CO), Spoleto (SC), the Grand Tetons (WY), and the Festival Inverno (Brazil). His performance degrees are from the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, West Germany, from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Paul Katz, and the DMA from Rutgers where he studied with cellist Bernard Greenhouse. He has been principal cellist of the South Carolina Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Orquesta-Sinfonica de Las Palmas, Spain. In 1983 Dr. Jesselson was in China for a six-month residency, one of the first Western cellists to visit that country. During that time he performed as soloist, gave master classes, and taught at several conservatories (including Beijing, Shanghai, and Canton). In December, 2001 he led a delegation of string players and teachers to Cuba to begin professional contact with Cuban musicians. He has also taught at Sookmyung University in Korea, Sun Yat Sen University in Taiwan, University of Auckland in New Zealand, at the Royal College of Music in London, and in St. Lucia in the Caribbean. Dr. Jesselson was the national President of ASTA from 2000-2002. He is former conductor of the USC University Orchestra and the Columbia Youth Orchestra, and he was the cello teacher at the S.C. Governor’s School for the Arts for 17 years. Dr. Jesselson is the author of “The Cellists Guide to Scales and Arpeggios” published by MelBay. He plays a 1716 Jacques Boquay cello.

I love the cello, music, and teaching. My goal is to communicate my love of the instrument and all the wonderful music written for it – solo music, chamber music, orchestral music, even jazz and popular music. I want to pass this on to the next generation, and hope that others can also enjoy what I love. My general philosophy of teaching is that I teach principles. In other words, I want students to understand principles of fingering choices, rather than just handing them fingerings for a particular passage. I want them to understand why we choose a particular sound for Baroque music and a different sound for a big Russian concerto. I want them to recognize the patterns in music, and to understand the basic organizing principles of a piece or a genre of music. I also make use of the Socratic method or Talmudic method in my teaching. It is far better for me to ask the students a question, and have them explain to me what they know, rather than me telling them what to do. This is preferable on many levels – verbalizing the answer helps the students organize their thinking. And it gives ownership of the answers to the student. So my lessons are full of questions. I let the students do the work!