Gabor Rejto; Cellist, USC Professor

Gabor Rejto, a charter member of the Alma Trio, longtime professor of music at USC and a cellist with an international reputation, died Friday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He was 71 and had a brain tumor.

Born in Budapest, he studied at the Academy of Music there and then with Pablo Casals in Spain.

He came to the United States and headed the cello and chamber music departments at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., before coming to USC in 1954 as chairman of the string department of the School of Music.

He was with the Alma Trio for 30 years and also performed with the Lener and Gordon string quartets.

He had been appearing at the Aspen Music Festival since 1984, the Marlboro Festival since 1983 and the Music Academy of the West since 1951. His tours have taken him throughout the United States and Europe and to Japan, Australia and South Africa.

Rejto, named Teacher of the Year by the American String Teachers Assn. in 1972 and the state affiliate of that group in 1980, recorded with such musical giants as Jascha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky.

Rejto, who retired from USC in 1978, is survived by his wife, Alice, a son, a daughter and a grandson.