Nona Pyron is an internationally known cellist as well as a recognized authority on the history of the cello and its performance. A pioneer in performance on “period” instruments (instruments appropriate to the historical period of the music being played), she introduced the concept of combining performance on Baroque, Classical and Modern cellos within a single concert in a series of six concerts at the Wigmore Hall in London in 1978. Thereafter, in London and throughout Europe, she frequently performed concerts which combined little known 17th & 18th century music on period instruments with the standard repertoire of the 19th and 20th centuries on the “modern” cello.
In London, where she lived for 17 years, she worked closely with the great cellist and teacher, William Pleeth, and collaborated with him on the book “Cello” for the Yehudi Menuhin Series. The book also contains a 65 page history of the cello by Nona which summarizes her many years of research on the early cello.
Nona is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Grancino Editions, a unique music publishing firm devoted to the publication of Baroque and Classical music – sonatas, concertos and chamber music for the cello and other instruments – drawn primarily from her collection of over 8,000 unknown compositions from the 17th and 18th centuries – a collection amassed through years of research in European libraries and archives.
Nona Pyron did her undergraduate studies at the Eastman School of Music and holds masters and doctoral degrees from the University of Southern California. A Fulbright Scholar, she attended the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Munich, Germany. She was on the Music Faculty of Willamette University in Salem, Oregon for nine years, simultaneously playing in the Portland Symphony for three years, and in the Alaska Music Festival. In 1966 she was one of eight cellists selected nationally to play in the Pablo Casals Master Class in Berkeley, and in 1967 received a Danforth Foundation grant to complete her doctorate.
In 2006 she joined the music faculty at Westmont College where she is currently presenting a series of six seminars on Historical Performance Practices. She continues to oversee the publications of Grancino Editions and devotes much of her time to teaching – both privately and in Master Classes.
Nona Pyron offers Private Cello instruction in Santa Barbara and Pasadena.
Please contact her for further details at:
pyroncello@gmail.com or call (805) 886-3592