Peter Stumpf is the former principal cellist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He was educated first at the Curtis Institute of Music as a student of Orlando Cole and then the New England Conservatory. He started his professional career at age sixteen as a cellist in the Hartford Symphony, then spent twelve years as associate principal of the Philadelphia Orchestra, before assuming his position at the start of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's 2002/2003 season.[1] He took a year's sabbatical from the LA Phil in 2011 to teach full-time at Indiana University's Jacob School of Music.[2] He left the orchestra permanently in 2012.
Stumpf is also the cellist of the Johannes String Quartet.[3] Musicians he has collaborated with include Emanuel Ax, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Mitsuko Uchida, and the Emerson String Quartet.[4]
Stumpf has also taught the cello at the New England Conservatory and USC Thornton School of Music,[1] [5]
On April 27, 2004, the General Kyd, a $3.5 million Stradivarius on loan to Stumpf from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, was stolen after he left it on his porch.[6] [7] It was discovered in a dumpster by Melanie Stevens, a thirty-year-old nurse, after a home surveillance video from across the street showed the cello being lifted by a clumsy thief on a bicycle at around 6:30 am.[7] [8] [9] Stevens initially asked her boyfriend to turn it into a CD cabinet, though a week and a half later, she caught a news report about the missing cello and the $50,000 reward for its return.[8] She identified it on the police website and sought to return it, with the aid of a lawyer.[7]