Maurice Gendron's family was poor and his mother helped support them by playing cello in a local silent movie house. She would take him to the theater, where he had his first exposure to musical performance. He learned to read music when he was three, was given a violin at four, and took an instant dislike to it, but at five he was given a quarter-sized cello and it immediately appealed to him.
His first teacher was Stephane Odero, who recognized that the boy had a notable talent and took him to the great cellist Emanuel Feuermann when Maurice was ten. He always remembered Fe...