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Lynn Harrell's father was Mack Harrell, a popular bass-baritone of the Metropolitan Opera. His mother, Marjorie Fulton, was a professional violinist. At the age of six he studied piano but did not like the instrument. At the age of eight he decided to learn cello. He received initial lessons with Heinrich Joachim, a cellist in the New York Philharmonic. Mack Harrell retired from the Met and moved to Dallas, Texas when Lynn was 11. There Lynn found an excellent teacher, Lev Aronson, the first to recognize his talent. Lynn says that Aronson "showed me passion, for the instrument, for music, and for life." After high school Lynn entered the Juilliard School. There he studied with one of the great cellists and teachers of the age, Leonard Rose. While Aronson had taught the straight-fingered Russian style. Rose convinced Harrell to change this to a lower positioning of the wrist. This requires more active fingers but results in a more flexible playing style. His parents died within two ye...