Truls Mørk

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Truls (Otterbech) Mørk (b. 25 April, 1961) is a Norwegian cellist.

He was born in Bergen, Norway, the child of two professional musicians, his father a cellist and his mother a pianist. His mother began teaching him the piano when he was seven. He started on the violin, but soon switched to the cello, with his father as teacher. He had to push his father to give him lessons because his father did not want him to take music too seriously.

He started studying with Frans Helmerson at 17, but only had lessons every few weeks. Between lessons, he would meet his friends at school at 7 AM and stay until 11 PM, playing, discussing music, and listening to records.

Mørk was a great admirer of Mstislav Rostropovich and the Russian school of cello, so he studied with Russian cellist Natalia Schakowskaya.

He was the first Scandinavian finalist and winner of the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1982. He went on to win the Naumberg Competition in New York in 1983, and the Cassado Cello Competition in Florence in 1986. In 1989, he embarked on a concert tour on which he played with many of the major orchestras of Europe. In 1994, he toured the United States with the Oslo Philharmonic, appearing at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.

Since that time, he has become one of the rising stars on the instrument, with numerous concert appearances and recordings to his credit. Mørk is also heavily involved in chamber music and has been a champion of the chamber music of Edvard Grieg.

Mørk plays a rare Domenico Montagnana (Venice, 1723) cello, the scroll of which was made by Stradivarius. It once belonged to a Belgian gentleman who named it the "Esquire". It was bought by a bank in Norway (SR Bank), and is on loan to him<ref>MASTERS SERIES, Haydn and the Creatures of Prometheus. Singapore Symphony Orchestra (25 November 2000). Retrieved on 2006-08-20.</ref>.