by Mike Telin
If asked, many musicians can tell you exactly when they heard a piece of music that changed their lives. For Zlatomir Fung that piece was Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1. “I must have been eleven years old,” Fung recalled during a recent interview. “I believe it was the debut recording that Rostropovich made with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and it was one of the first cello videos that was on YouTube. I came across it and I was just blown away. And that was the recording that made me want to be a cellist.”
On Saturday, July 22 at 7:00 pm, Fung will bring that concerto to the Blossom Music Center stage when he makes his Cleveland Orchestra debut. The program, under the direction of Kahchun Wong, also includes Yasushi Akutagawa’s Music for Symphony Orchestra and Debussy’s La mer. Tickets are available online.
I caught up with the celebrated young cellist by phone and began by asking him to share his thoughts about playing with The Cleveland Orchestra for the first time.