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LHI Live: Cullen O'Neil and Rebecca Luppe

Cullen O'Neil

Over the last ten years, cellist Cullen O'Neil and pianist Rebecca Luppe have bonded over music, Girl Scouts, school, and games they made up themselves. Now eighteen and nineteen years old, they've established themselves as two of the finest in the current crop of classical musicians from west Michigan. 

Cullen and Rebecca each took several years of private lessons, most recently with Western Michigan University professor of cello Bruce Uchimura and WMU resident pianist Susan Uchimura, respectively.  Another huge influence on their development was playing in the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra, led by Andrew Koehler.

The two friends talk about their experiences and training, and play Robert Schumann's Five Pieces in Folk-Style in the Takeda performance studio at WMUK. We also hear Cullen play two solo movements from Johann Sebastian Bach's Suite No. 3 in C major.

This fall, Cullen will be attending the University of Michigan to study with Richard Aaron. Rebecca has just completed her first year at Vanderbilt University, where she studies with Amy Dorfman. 

Cara Lieurance is the local host of NPR's All Things Considered on 1021 WMUK and covers local arts & culture on Let's Hear It on 89.9 Classical WMUK weekday mornings at 10 - 11 am.
As Chief Engineer for WMUK, Martin Klemm is kept busy by tending to a variety of issues - from computers to tower lights - he will never run out of things to fix. Before coming to WMUK in 2003, Martin worked in Los Angeles making records with some outstanding producers, but preferred to be close to his family here in west Michigan. He enjoys keeping a busy schedule balancing WMUK, loving on his friends' doggos, and remodeling his home in the Edison neighborhood (which never seems to end)
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