Truls Olaf Otterbech Mørk

Truls Olaf Otterbech Mørk (born 25 April 1961) is a Norwegian cellist.   Mørk was born in Bergen, Norway, the son 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 also played the violin, but soon switched to the cello, taking lessons from his father.   Mørk began his studies with Frans Helmerson at 17 at the renowned Edsberg Music Institute. An admirer of Mstislav Rostropovich and the Russian school of cello, Mørk went on to study with the Russian cellist Natalia Shakhovskaya.   In 1982, Mørk became the first Scandinavian musician to reach the finals of the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow since Arto Noras in 1966, and won 6th Prize. He subsequently went on to win 2nd prize at the 1986 Naumburg Competition in New York and, in 1986, the Cassado Cello Competition in Florence. In 1989, he embarked on his first major concert tour, soloing with many of the finest orchestras of Europe. In 1994, he toured the United States with the Oslo Philharmonic, including debuts at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.   At present, Mørk is large in the international concert scene. His extensive discography spans from a Grammy-award-winning recording of the Shostakovich Cello Concertos to a critically acclaimed[citation needed] recording of Bach's Suites for Solo Cello. Mørk's passionate interest in chamber music led to the foundation of the International Chamber Music Festival of Stavanger.   Mørk holds a Professorship at the Norwegian Academy of Music, Oslo.   Mørk plays a rare Domenico Montagnana cello (Venice, 1723), the scroll of which was made by Stradivarius. Valued at around 12 million NOK 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.   In April 2009, Mørk experienced an infection of the central nervous system, presumably caused by a tick bite he received in the United States in 2006, with subsequent encephalitis, and paralysis in the shoulder muscles of the left arm. In the autumn of 2009 he expressed concern that he might never be able to perform again.As of January 2011, Mørk is back on stage, returning also to the studio with a recording of concertos by C. P. E. Bach.