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Julian Lloyd Webber

Julian Lloyd Webber (left) with Mstislav Rostropovich
Background information
Born 14 April 1951 (1951-04-14) (age 58)
Genres classical
Occupations cellist
Instruments cello
Years active 1971 - present day

Julian Lloyd Webber (born 14 April 1951) is one of the world's most renowned solo cellists.

Contents

Early life

Lloyd Webber is the second son of the composer William Lloyd Webber and Jean Hermione (nee Johnstone, 1921-1993), and is the younger brother of the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. Lloyd Webber was a scholar at the Royal College of Music[1] (London) and completed his studies with Pierre Fournier in Geneva in 1973. He made his professional debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London in January 1972 when he gave the first London performance of the Cello Concerto by Sir Arthur Bliss [2].

Work

Lloyd Webber has collaborated with a wide variety of musicians, including Yehudi Menuhin, Lorin Maazel, Neville Marriner, Georg Solti, and Esa-Pekka Salonen as well as Stephane Grappelli, Elton John and Cleo Laine.

Lloyd Webber has made many recordings, including his BRIT Award winning Elgar Cello Concerto conducted by Yehudi Menuhin (chosen as the finest ever version by BBC Music Magazine),[3] the Dvořák Cello Concerto with Václav Neumann and the Czech Philharmonic, Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations with the London Symphony Orchestra under Maxim Shostakovich and a coupling of Britten's Cello Symphony and Walton's Concerto with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, which was described by Gramophone magazine as "beyond any rival". He has also recorded several CDs of short pieces for Universal Classics including Made in England, Cello Moods, Cradle Song and English Idyll (album): "It would be difficult to find better performances of this kind of repertoire anywhere on records of today or yesterday" - Gramophone.[4]

Lloyd Webber has given more than 50 works their premiere recordings and has inspired new compositions for cello from composers as diverse as Malcolm Arnold, Joaquín Rodrigo, James MacMillan, and Philip Glass. Recent concert performances have included three further works composed for Julian - Michael Nyman's Double Concerto for Cello and Saxophone on BBC Television, Gavin Bryars's Concerto in Suntory Hall, Tokyo and Philip Glass's Concerto at the Beijing International Festival. His recording of the Glass concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic conducted by Gerard Schwarz was released on the Orange Mountain label in September 2004.

Lloyd Webber's recording, Phantasia, is based on Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera and features violinist Sarah Chang. A recent EMI disc, Unexpected Songs, which included collaborations with harpist Catrin Finch and singer Michael Ball was released in June 2006.

Instrument

Julian Lloyd Webber plays the Barjansky Stradivarius cello, dated c.1690.[5]

Other

Julian Lloyd Webber has also been greatly involved in music education and formed the "Music Education Consortium" with James Galway and Evelyn Glennie in 2003. He also writes a monthly column on music and musicians for the Daily Telegraph. He received the Crystal Award at the World Economic Forum in 1998 and a Classic FM Red Award for outstanding services to music in 2005. He was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Music in 1994 and has received honorary doctorates from both the University of Hull and Thames Valley University.

In May 2001, he was granted the first busker's licence on the London Underground.

In 2008, the British Government invited Lloyd Webber to be Chairman of its In Harmony project.

In May 2009 Lloyd Webber was elected President of the Elgar Society in succession to Sir Adrian Boult, Lord Menuhin (who conducted his Brit Award winning recording of the Elgar Cello Concerto) and Richard Hickox. He is also a Vice President of the Delius Society.

In September 2009 he joined the Board of Governors of the Southbank Centre.

Personal life

Julian married fellow cellist Jiaxin Cheng in 2009 in Kensington and Chelsea, London. He has one son, David (born 1992, Hammersmith, London),[6] from a previous marriage to Zohra Mahmoud Ghazi, a member of the Afghan Royal Family.

An authorised biography, Married to Music, written by Margaret Campbell in 2001 explores his career further.

Recordings

Orchestral recordings

Chamber recordings

Semi-classical

Collections

References

  1. ^ September 1968 to July 1972
  2. ^ Bliss Concerto Premiere Reviews
  3. ^ Dr. Jerrold Northrop Moore: "Building a Library", "BBC Music Magazine", September 1992
  4. ^ Alan Saunders: "Gramophone", October 1993
  5. ^ Woodstra, Chris; Brennan, Gerald; Allen Schrott (2005). All Music Guide to Classical Music: The Definitive Guide to Classical Music. CMP Media. p. 758. ISBN 0879308656. http://books.google.com/books?id=n29DHVKhZggC.  
  6. ^ Births and Marriages England and Wales 1984-2006

External links








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