Tibor de Machula

Tibor "Tibby" de Machula, wonderful hungarian cellist was born in Kolozsvar in Hungary on 30 June 1912, and at the age of seven began his studies at the Budapest Conservatoire under Adolf Schiffer, a contemporary of Popper. He was barely twelve when he made his debut playing the Haydn D major Cello Concerto with the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra under Bernard Tittel. A subsequent tour of Italy led to the award of the David Popper Scholarship, and, in 1927 - acting on the advice of Jenö Hubay - he completed his studies at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia with the English cellist Felix Salmond.

At eighteen he returned to Hungary and, with the pianist Paul Schramm, was immediately engaged by Nicholas Roth of the Budapest Trio to go on an extensive tour of Singapore, Java, Sumatra, Ceylon and the Dutch East Indies. They also achieved considerable success in Finland where de Machula later returned many times and also had a number of pupils.