Aldo Parisot, the longest-serving faculty member in Yale history, has died at age 100, Yale recently announced.

A child prodigy on cello, acclaimed performer and then faculty member at Yale since 1958, Parisot was a legend at Yale who taught and led the popular Yale Cellos ensemble until retiring in June 2018.

“The presence of Aldo Parisot in the School of Music has been transformative and transcendent,” YSM Dean Robert Blocker said upon Parisot’s retirement, according to a Yale release. “His strongly held opinions about artistic excellence have led generations of faculty and students to carefully consider their points of view about music making, but with his rigorous intonements came a palpable love for the beauty of music and what it means to our lives.”

Brazilian-born Parisot made his debut with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra at age 12 and became the ensemble’s principal cellist at 18. He secured a scholarship to study chamber music at the Yale School of Music in 1946. He later played professionally with eminent conductors as Stokowski, Bernstein, Mehta and others. He loved teaching cello and founded the Yale Cellos in 1983, the yearly recital concert of which is a popular ticket at Sprague Hall.

He also was a recognized painter, and his works would be projected onto screens during the Yale Cellos concert.

Four years ago this month, the great cellist Yo-Yo Ma sat down to interview Parisot on stage at Woolsey Hall in New Haven and played straight man to Parisot’s quips.

In a 2014 interview with the Register, Parisot said, “You are as old as you want to be. It’s just a state of mind. ... My mind is perfect. I can call a bunch of names to my students when they don’t play well,” he laughs. “They are my friends.”

Parisot also considered his students as his children. In a 2017 interview, he was quoted as saying, “I am very severe, because I care about them. I tell my students, ‘Your future depends on you. You’ve got to believe in yourself.’”