He is a cellist and teacher who was raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts and took his studies in cello, chamber music and conducting at Harvard College and the Manhattan School of Music with teachers such as Maurice Eisenberg, Leonard Shure and Pablo Casals.
His carer as a professional musician has seen him perform with countless American orchestras and ensembles and some of these include the Buffalo Philharmonic, Chancellor String Quartet, Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Network for New Music, Orchestra 2001, Philadelphia Camerata, Princeton Chamber Orchestra, Relache Ensemble, Springfield Symphony, Vermont Symphony and Windsor String Quartet.
He also founded and spent three decades as a member of the New York Camerata, worked with Leopold Stokowski as the Principal Cellist of the American Symphony and appeared as a solo recitalist at Carnegie Hall on four occasions. More recently he has been the Principal Cello with the Bucks County Symphony and a member of Orchestra 2001 and the ensembles Liebesfreud and Ensemble Impromptu.
He has appeared on several recordings that include Songs from Another Time by New York Camerata, Gloria! Gloria! with Benita Valente, The Philadelphia Singers & Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and A Miriam Gideon Retrospective and Images: Music by Eleanor Cory and Walter Winslow: Concertati Veneziani & Other Works.
In the field of musical education he has been involved with the Princeton Chamber Music Play Week as it’s music director since it was established in the two decades ago. He has also been a private tutor at the Settlement Music School and a faculty member of several schools that include Amherst College, Doylestown’s Community Conservatory, Exeter Academy, the University of Delaware and Manhattan School of Music among others.
He is also the compiler of the publication Cellos Scales and Arpeggios and the inventor of the music scroller, which allows music to be read with the aid of a foot pedal instead of turning pages.
The Philadelphia Singers recordings
Adeste Fidelis (John Francis Wade)
RCA 6559-2-RC (Gloria! Gloria!)
Soprano – Benita Valente
Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia
Conductor – Michael Korn
Here he is performing Popper Requiem ….
Sources:
- http://ensembleimpromptu.blogspot.com/2010/02/charles-forbes-is-cellist-teacher-and.html
- http://www.cellist.nl/database/showcellist.asp?id=1117
- http://www.liebesfreud.org/bio.html
- http://www.playweek.net/coaches.html
- http://www.jenniferguy.com/other%20Interests/charles_forbes.htm
- http://singingwoodsviolin.com/aboutus_3.html
- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Songs-Another-Time-Charles-Forbes/dp/B0000057VQ
- http://catalog.dclibrary.org/vufind/Record/ocm05054485
- http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=41:23992~T3
- CD Liner Notes: Gloria! Gloria!