"His performances have a spontaneous, even passionate, immediacy yet he is always in control of the situation; it's difficult to imagine anyone playing the cello better than this."

The New York Times

"Mr. Kreger's playing is strong, vigorous and impassioned. It was always firmly controlled, never losing musical or tonal focus."

The New York Times

"Within measures, Kreger established his 'voice' - and what a commanding sound it was! For the slow, romantic utterance, his playing is unsurpassed."

Musical America

"Kreger can play the cello astoundingly. He has a concentrated, hot sound of unusual power, and a combination of good ear and good left hand that keep his playing in tune even where things become technically very difficult."

Boston Globe

"Kreger's tone was simply wonderful: mellow, rich, consistent throughout."

New York Post

"...a welcome breadth of tone, an eloquence born of total conviction."

London Daily Telegraph

"In the cadenza, his technique was breathtaking in its assurance and tonal purity. Unafraid of emotions, he invested the lyrical sections with an honesty that spoke thunderingly of his gifts as a musician."

Indianapolis News

Internationally acclaimed as one of the foremost cellists of his generation, James Kreger first gained worldwide attention in 1974 at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, where judges and audiences hailed his playing as "amazingly poetical and technically superb" and awarded him a top prize.

Critics have frequently commented on qualities that set Mr. Kreger apart from other cellists of his generation, citing his "broad range of expressive nuance" and his deep emotional conviction, allied to a "total command of the instrument" (The New York Times). The distinguished Soviet cellist Daniel Shafran observed that Mr. Kreger's performances "were truly lit up with inspiration," while musicologist Nicholas Kenyon, reviewing Mr. Kreger's London recital debut at Wigmore Hall, bluntly stated, "James Kreger is a marvel."

Mr. Kreger rapidly became a familiar figure on the international concert scene in Europe, Asia and the United States. He has appeared with such orchestras as the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, Slovak Philharmonic, Moscow State Symphony, Cluj Philharmonic in Romania, Florida Philharmonic, Denver Symphony, Nashville Symphony and KBS Symphony of Korea. Among the many internationally acclaimed conductors with whom he has worked are Erich Leinsdorf, Eugene Ormandy, Leopold Stokowski, Carlo Maria Giulini, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas, Zubin Mehta, Carlos Kleiber, Gerard Schwarz and James Levine.

With his large and varied repertoire, Mr. Kreger has made guest appearances throughout the United States, the Orient and Eastern and Western Europe. He has been a featured artist at major music festivals, including the Casals, Mostly Mozart, Marlboro, Ravinia, Tanglewood, Dubrovnik, Brno, Stratford, Saratoga, Newport, Chopin and Appalachian Summer. His televised appearances range from KBS-TV in Korea to PBS-TV and CBS-TV's Camera Three in the U.S., and he has been heard on Dutch and German radio, NPR in the U.S. and NHK in Japan.

A passionate chamber musician, Mr. Kreger caused a sensation in the music world when he made his 1971 Carnegie Hall recital debut with pianist Garrick Ohlsson. Allen Hughes of The New York Times commented, "Mr. Kreger's playing resembles that of Mstislav Rostropovich and Jacqueline du Pre in that it is strong, vigorous and impassioned. But in this recital, it was always firmly controlled, never losing musical or tonal focus, never splitting a sentiment to shreds." Since then, he has collaborated with some of the greatest artists of our time, notably James Levine, Heinz Holliger, Andras Schiff, Richard Goode, Felix Galimir, Wynton Marsalis, Agustin Anievas and Jean-Philippe Collard, and with such elite chamber ensembles as the Tokyo and Vermeer Quartets and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In addition, he was invited by the legendary cellist Janos Starker to be guest soloist at Indiana University's American Cello Congress.

Mr. Kreger can be heard on the CBS/Sony, RCA/BMG, Guild Music, Leonarda, Melodiya, Music and Arts, and Koch labels. His recently released recordings include Mendelssohn's Complete Works for Cello and Piano with pianist Gerald Robbins on the Koch Discover International label, and two Guild Music CDs that feature him in Strauss’s Don Quixote for cello and orchestra, Victor Herbert’s Cello Concerto No. 2, Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in b minor, and the ravishing Dvorak "Silent Woods."

Mr. Kreger was born and raised in Nashville, beginning cello studies at age 9. A prize-winning student of Leonard Rose and Harvey Shapiro, and also deeply influenced by his work with Pablo Casals and Gregor Piatigorsky, he had been awarded the prestigious Piatigorsky Prize at age 18, later graduating from the Juilliard School with its highest honors: the Morris Loeb Prize and the Felix Salmond Award. His other awards and recognition include a Martha Baird Rockefeller grant, as well as tours under the auspices of the U.S. State Department and the sponsorship of the Leventritt Foundation.

Every year, Mr. Kreger devotes a significant amount of time to teaching and coaching the young cellists of the next generation. He is currently a member of the Juilliard faculty. In addition, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas invited him to be guest cello teacher and coach with the New World Symphony in Miami, a training orchestral academy where the most gifted graduates of distinguished music conservatories come to prepare for leadership positions in orchestras and ensembles throughout the world. In the summer of 2002, he taught and performed at the Heifetz International Music Institute in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. He resides in New York City and continues to concertize all over the world.