Janos Starker. Courtesy Indiana University Archives.

Grammy-award winning cellist and former Indiana University Jacobs School of Music faculty member János Starker would have celebrated his 100th birthday this year on July 5.  To commemorate his centennial and to honor his exceptional career, WTIU and WFIU will air TV and radio specials about Starker.

WTIU will present an encore broadcast of János Starker: A 75th Birthday Celebration on Friday, July 5 at 9 p.m. This special is hosted by violinist and former Starker student Joshua Bell and includes a new introduction for Starker’s centennial by IU Jacobs School of Music professor Emilio Colón, also a former student of Starker’s.

In addition to providing a new introduction for János Starker: A 75th Birthday Celebration, Colón was recently interviewed for a feature about Starker’s legacy on WTIU’s series Journey Indiana, which is available to watch online at journeyindiana.org.

WFIU’s radio special A Tribute to János Starker airs Saturday, July 6 at 5 p.m. on WFIU2 and Sunday, July 7 at 6 p.m. on WFIU. The program features performances showcasing the breadth of Starker’s 55-year career at Indiana University. A Tribute to János Starker focuses on notable collaborations with colleagues like pianist György Sebök and violinist Josef Gingold. Repertoire includes Starker’s performance of a suite written by Bernhard Heiden, a professor of composition at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music; a cello sonata by Ernst Dohnanyi, one of Starker’s teachers during his time as a student at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest; and a cello sonata by Claude Debussy, one of Starker’s first recorded performances at Indiana University.

A Tribute to János Starker is part of WFIU’s continuing collaboration with the IU Jacobs School of Music to broadcast recordings of music performances from their extensive archives. Support for this program is made possible by the Wennerstrom-Phillips Fund for Classical Music, established by Mary Wennerstrom, professor and associate dean emerita at the IU Jacobs School of Music.