Michael Reynolds
Associate Professor of Music, Cello
Cellist Michael Reynolds has taught at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts since 1983. His students continue to develop successful careers in music, including members of the Boston Symphony, teachers at universities and other institutions nationally, four Boston Symphony Competition winners, several YPO concerto winners and New World Symphony positions. Mr. Reynolds has been the cellist of the world-renowned Muir String Quartet since its inception in 1979. In that capacity, he tours the musical centers of North America and Europe. Accolades he has won while with the Muir Quartet include first prize at the Evian Competition (1980), the 1981 Naumburg Award, two Grand Prix du Disques (1985, 1987), the Gramophone Award (1987), a Grammy nomination and a Grammy, and an internationally acclaimed PBS broadcast, "In Performance at The White House" for President and Mrs. Ronald Reagan. As a member of the Muir Quartet, Mr. Reynolds has performed nearly 2,000 concerts throughout North America, Europe and the Far East, and he has performed with such diverse artists as Leon Fleisher, Menachem Pressler, Gil Shaham, Phyllis Curtin and Benny Goodman. A native of Montana, he received his professional training at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he was a student of David Soyer and Martita Casals, continuing with Karen Tuttle and George Neikrug and studies at Yale University. Mr. Reynolds has appeared with orchestras and in recital throughout the U.S, and his recording of the complete Bach Suites for Solo Cello has received much critical acclaim. He is also co-founder and Artistic Director of Classics for Kids Foundation, which offers matching grants for quality student instruments and inspirational mentoring to strings programs around America, and he directs the Muir Quartet’s Emerging Quartets and Composers program in Park City, Utah, in partnership with the Utah Symphony/Opera’s Deer Valley Festival. He also is Artistic Director of Rockport Fall Foliage, a yearly gathering of amateur musicians in Rockport, Maine. Mr. Reynolds has also served on the faculties of Rutgers University, the University of Utah, and UC Santa Cruz. He received an honorary doctorate from Rhode Island College in 1995. In his spare time he is an avid flyfisherman and outdoorsman. His most recent appointment is as Artistic Director of the Fredericksburg Festival of the Arts. He plays a cello by Carlo Antonio Testori from 1741, “ex Toscanini”.