Erik Friedlander

Erik Friedlander “can do things with a cello that should have a reasonable listener fearing for his or her life,” says PitchforkMedia.com, “Rostropovich one second and Rottweiler the next.” A virtuosic veteran of New York City’s downtown scene, Friedlander has backed John Zorn, Laurie Anderson and Courtney Love. Erik Friedlander is a unique cellist whose work blurs genre borders. He is a composer and an improviser, a classical musician and a jazzbo.

Erik is the son of Lee Friedlander, an art photographer known by musicians and jazz aficionados for the cover photographs he took for Atlantic Records. His passion for r & b and jazz greatly influenced Erik, whose earliest memories are of a household filled with the sounds of his father’s subjects—Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, McCoy Tyner, Ornette Coleman, and John Coltrane. Erik started playing guitar at age 6 and added cello two years later. His latest release is Block Ice and Propane features a number of pieces he premiered at MusicNOW.

Learn the latest, including an iPhone ad, from Erik Friedlander.