Helga Ulsamer Winold has contributed to music in general and cello playing in particular in three principal areas---performance, teaching, and research. Her work in all three areas has received national and international recognition and her career has been an eloquent testimony to the way these three areas can inform and enrich each other.
As a performer, Helga Ulsamer Winold has played solo and chamber music recitals in many of the leading music centers of the United States, Europe, and Asian. Highlights of her performing career include performances as soloist with the Munich Philharmonic and other orchestras, presentations of the complete Beethoven cycle of works for cello and piano in Vienna and other cities, and numerous performances of contemporary works for cello.
As a teacher, Helga Ulsamer Winold, has had an enormously successful career working with students at all levels from gifted younger players to experienced professional musicians. Many of her students have gone on to important performing positions in professional orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, the Pittsburg Symphony, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and the Bavarian State. Other former students have gone on to significant teaching positions such as the University of Pennsylvania, the National Conservatory of Taipei, the Freiburg Hochschule für Musik, and Indiana University. She has presented highly successful master classes in such places as Alberta, Canada; Brigham Young University; the University of Denver; the University of Kentucky; Colorado State University; University of Wyoming; Hochschule für Musik, Frankfurt; Hochschule für Musik, Freiburg; Hochschule für Musik, Karlsruhe; Villa Musica, Mainz; National Conservatory, Taipei; and the Richard Strauss Konservatorium, München.
As a researcher and writer, Helga Ulsamer Winold has made signal contributions in several areas. Her articles on cello playing include "On the Rebound: A Study of Staccato Bowing" in the Strad magazine; "Music, Movement, and Monitoring" in The American String Teacher, and "Musical Aspects of Motion Analysis" in Concepts of String Playing. She has also published several articles in scientific journals including "Coordination and Control in the Bow Arm Movements of Highly Skilled Cellists" in The Journal of Ecological Psychology, written with the noted psychologist, Esther Thelen; and "High Speed Films of Basic Left Hand Movements in Cello Playing," in Biology of Music. She has presented papers at major conferences including "Cello Bowings Seen Through the Eye of the Computer" at the Third American Cello Congress, "Self-assembly of Rhythmic Movements in the Bow Arm of Cellists" at the Fourth International Congress on Event Perception and Action, and "Der Cellobogen unter der Lupe" at the inaugural congress of the Research Institute for Instrumental and Vocal Pedagogy of the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst, Frankfurt. She has produced a video film entitled "A Legacy of Cellists" that was presented at the Third American Cello Congress, and she has published a three-volume method for cello playing entitled Cellocity.
Helga Ulsamer Winold was born in München and then moved to Köln where she studied at the Stattliche Musikhochschule and received the Reifeprüfung cum Laude. She also received the Stattliche Privatmusiklehrerprüfung in Düsseldorf. Her principal teachers in Europe were André Navarra and Adolf Steiner. She performed frequently on German radio and in concerts in various cities in Europe. She also began her teaching career in Europe working with private students.
In 1963 she immigrated to the United States to study with the renowned artist teacher Janos Starker at the Indiana University School of Music and in 1967 she received the first Doctor of Music degree in cello granted by that institution. She began teaching at the Indiana University School of Music in 1969, and continues to teach at this institution in the rank of Professor of Music, as well as serving occasionally as guest professor at other schools in the United States and Europe. In addition to her teaching of private students Professor Winold also teaches Cello Literature to 1800, Cello Literature from 1800 to the present, and Cello Pedagogy, and she coaches chamber music. She has served as research director or member of numerous doctoral committees. She has served on numerous school and university committees and as an advisor for undergraduate and graduate students. She also continues her work on research in movement in string playing with Professor Esther Thelen under a grant from the National Institute for Health.
 |
|