Supporting his family at 8, playing for silent movies, surviving pogroms, Piatigorsky became principal cellist of the Bolshoi at 15 & met Lenin. Virtuoso cellist and raconteur, escaping the Soviet Union made him an action hero. Fleeing Europe in 1939 to become an American, 'The Cellist' revels in his musicianship, wit & humanity, as recounted by the virtuosic cellists and musicians he taught.