Cello
George Kim Scholes has successfully pursued a variety of musical activities. His career has encompassed chamber music, pop-rock touring and recording, composing and arranging, solo classical performing, recordings for television and film, teaching and orchestral playing.
Mr. Scholes first noticed the cello watching the Lawrence Welk Show with his family in Oklahoma. Piano and cello lessons started at age five, and after rapidly advancing on both instruments, Kim was enchanted by chamber music. He eventually was drawn to New York by the eloquent and elegant playing of cellist Bernard Greenhouse of the Beaux Arts Trio. Before graduating from the Manhattan School of Music, he unexpectedly won an audition to tour and record as a member of folk-rock artist Harry Chapin’s five member band playing the cello and keyboards. He performed in 200-250 cities a year worldwide, and recorded on Elektra Records. He also composed the film score for the B horror film The Nesting.
Returning to classical performance, and during post-graduate studies at the New England Conservatory of Music, Kim won the Concert Artists Guild Competition and the US Trust Artist Award. He also won an award for Excellence in Teaching in the Gregor Piatigorsky Competition in Boston. He has held faculty positions at M.I.T. as an instructor of cello and chamber music, Hartt School of Music, University of Toronto, Longy School of Music and Chicago’s Roosevelt University. He has recorded on the Titanic, Summit and Cedille labels, among others. He had the good fortune to commence his orchestral career with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, followed by a decade as principal cellist of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. In California, he has served as principal cellist of Opera Pacific, international tours as an extra player with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, a frequent recorder on Hollywood film scores and is currently Principal Cello of the Pasadena Symphony. George is very happy to reside in the Carson Valley of northern Nevada.