Grammy winning cellist Janos Starker dead at 88

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Grammy Award-winning cellist Janos Starker has died after months of declining health. He was 88.

Alain Barker, a spokesman for the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, said Starker died Sunday at his Bloomington home in the presence of family members. Barker said a family representative confirmed the death.

Starker won a 1997 Grammy Award for best instrumental solo performance for a recording of Bach cello suites.

Starker made his professional debut at 14. He immigrated to the United States in 1948 and played for the Dallas Symphony, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chicago Symphony before joining Indiana University in 1958.

He was born to Jewish parents in Budapest on July 5, 1924, and spent three months in Nazi concentration camps.

Survivors include his wife, Rae, and two daughters.

-- AP