Eleanor Slatkin(1917-1995)

Cellist Eleanor Aller was born in New York City, USA. Her uncle was composer/conductor Modest Altschuler. In 1939 she married violinist Felix Slatkin and became first cellist of the Warner Bros. studio orchestra, a position she held for 20 years. As co-founder with her husband of the famed Hollywood String Quartet, she recorded 21 albums and shared a 1958 Grammy Award for their version of Beethoven's Op. 130 Quartet. Long regarded as one of Hollywood's finest soloists, she performed Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Cello Concerto on the soundtrack of "Deception" (1947) and John Williams wrote a solo especially for her in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977). She was active as a freelance session player until shortly before her death. Her sons are conductor Leonard Slatkin and cellist Frederic Zlotkin.