In Their Own Words with String Sensation, Roric Cunningham

Manchester’s Roric Cunningham plays cello with the Boston Symphony Orchestra

16 hours ago

Mark Hayward, Jodie Andruskevich, Photographer,

Roric Cunningham plays a cello built in 1721 during a performance in Manchester in April.

For the last 10 years or so, New Hampshire has been nurturing a budding rock star. A rock star, that is, in the classical music world.

During much of the 2010s, Roric Cunningham hopscotched stages in New England, a cello at his side. Then it was off
to college in New York City, and then he landed his first full-time gig as a cellist.

No startup garage band for Cunningham — he plays with the world-renowned Boston Symphony Orchestra.

He has toured with the National Youth Orchestra and performed worldwide from Beijing to Berlin (the one in Europe, that is). Just this spring, he vied at a music competition in Brussels that featured young cellists from around the world.

On top of his musical success, Cunningham has the heartthrob potential of a Harry Styles or Justin Bieber. He is 26, a mere young’un in the classical world. He stands at 6 feet, 3 inches and delivers an intense, no-nonsense stare from a clean-shaven face that is topped by wispy, dirty blond hair.

“This is a job I always wanted, wished for and I got it. I’m set for life,” Cunningham said about the BSO. “Technically, I don’t have to do any more.”

To listen to Cunningham is to drift along deep, luscious murmurs that he draws out of the instrument’s spruce body and steel strings.

The result: smooth, mid-range tones, lower than those of a wailing lead guitar, higher than a thumping bass. The sound evokes an instrumental equivalent to an Amy Winehouse or Luciano Pavarotti, sans lyrics.

“It’s got a beautiful singing tone,” Cunningham said of the cello. “It’s easy to fall in love with that much richness.”

Cunningham grew up in a single-parent home in the crime-and-poverty-infused city center of Manchester. His early lessons came from the Manchester schools’ strings program and YouTube videos.

His talent soon caught the ears of movers in the Manchester classical music scene, and opportunities followed: free lessons under Harel Gietheim at the Manchester Community Music School and performances throughout the region, including the Shostakovich First Cello Concerto with the NH Philharmonic while still in high school.

Then it was off to New York on a full scholarship to The Juilliard School. He was a senior at Juilliard when he won the BSO selection on his second try.

“Roric is a generational talent,” said Ethan Cheng, the assistant principal cellist with the New Hampshire Philharmonic Orchestra. “It is truly astonishing how quickly he picks up techniques and learns.”

Cunningham attributes his success to the time spent behind a music stand.

“A lot of hard work and hours; that’s always the secret behind anything,” he said. He also credits his teachers, friends and fellow performers.

An example of that dedication to rehearsal took place in April, when Roric had to prepare for the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, an international competition that drew 66 young cellists from around the world.

He needed to practice in front of a crowd, so he traveled to Manchester to perform a homecoming at the Manchester Community Music School. With only a few days’ notice, the school drew a crowd of about 60 listeners.

Cunningham played on a borrowed instrument, a 1721 German-built cello valued at $1.5 million.

Roric Cunningham’s early lessons came from a public school program and YouTube videos.

While playing a modern piece, he wields his bow as if he were fencing with an opponent, lightly touching strings to deliver a clipped response. He eventually draws the bow its length, developing a sustained purr.

He may then ignore the bow and deliver staccato rejoinders with quick finger plucks.

More forceful passages might require either jumping strings or hitting two simultaneously. As he does so, his hand rapidly arches at the knuckles and then flattens, as if he were the Celtics’ Derrick White dribbling through defenders.

All the while, his left-hand fingers tiptoe along the 2 feet of the fingerboard, guided by a finely tuned ear. His eyes dart around at several targets: his bow hand, his piano accompanist, and a non-focused stare, where you get the feeling he is reading the score that is seared into his brain.

“He calls and says, ‘Can I come by?’ It’s like coming home,” said Polly Towner, executive director of MCMS.

The school has been in existence for 43 years. Some of its graduates tour with Broadway shows. Some play in orchestras in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. No others have reached Cunningham’s level of success.

That success allows Cunningham to live in his own two-bedroom apartment in the Fenway neighborhood of Boston. (He hasn’t had a roommate in the past, but this year he invited a friend from Juilliard to share his apartment.)

Work is a big part of his life. The BSO plays three nights a week during its regular season, and summers are booked at Tanglewood, the BSO’s summer home in the Berkshires. Cunningham practices about three hours a day.

In his spare time, he scrolls Instagram. A night out with friends, nearly all fellow young musicians, is spent on the Boston restaurant scene.

Then there are parties, such as when the most famous living cellist and friend of the BSO, Yo-Yo Ma, is in town.

“He’s super fun and outgoing, a jokester,” Cunningham said.

Although he’s an upcoming rock star, this is the classical world. After a performance, an audience member may approach and compliment him, but Cunningham thinks he is more likely noticed because he’s dressed in concert black.

After all, the classical world doesn’t involve the on-stage antics of a Mick Jagger or Bruce Springsteen.

Cunningham discounts any notion of drugs, sex, backbiting and celebrity glamour, such as portrayed in the Amazon Prime series “Mozart in the Jungle.”

“It’s a bit of an exaggeration. My world is not like that,” he said about the series.

His world is the music.

“As with every person, there has to be some sort of drive behind (success), the love of the process. It’s a long and grueling process,” he said. “And also, curiosity. Everyone has to be at peak levels. You have to want that process. And have to fight for it every day.”

From Lady Gaga, Perry Como, to Broadway Show Tunes

What does a promising classical musician listen to when he’s not working on the technicalities of a Bach sonata? From Roric Cunningham’s streaming music playlist:

I’ll Make a Man Out of You
— Donny Osmond and Chorus

Thank You — Dido

APT. — ROSE & Bruno Mars

like —JENNIE

(“Fearless”) — Jay Chou

A Girl Worth Fighting For (from “Mulan”) — Lea Salonga

Moon River (from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”) — Audrey Hepburn

Honor To Us All — Lea Salonga

Die With A Smile — Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars

Promise — Laufey

The Never Ending Story — Limahl

Sunrise, Sunset (from “Fiddler
on the Roof”) — Perry Como