Cellist Antonio Meneses passed away yesterday in Basel, Switzerland, at the age of 66. Born in Recife, Brazil, in 1957 to a family of musicians, Meneses began his cello studies at the age of ten.
At the age of sixteen he met renowned cellist Antonio Janigro, who took him to Europe to take his courses in Düsseldorf and Stuttgart. In 1977 he won first prize at the ARD International Competition in Munich. He played then with the most renowned orchestras and conductors.
Meneses’ passion for and specialization in chamber music led him to collaborate with a lot of top artists. He was part of the latest lineup of the legendary Beaux Arts Trio together with Daniel Hope and Menahem Pressler.
In the recording field, Meneses made many recordings, among them the highly successful recordings for Deutsche Grammophon with Herbert von Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker: the Brahms Double Concerto for Violin and Cello with Anne-Sophie Mutter and Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote. He was also a very renowned teacher, notably with the Stauffer Academy in Cremona from 2025 on.
