Julian Lloyd Webber

Described by Strad magazine as ‘the doyen of British cellists’ and widely regarded as one the finest musicians of his generation, Julian Lloyd Webber enjoys one of the most creative and successful careers in classical music today. He has premiered more than fifty works for cello and he has inspired new compositions from composers as diverse as Joaquin Rodrigo and Malcolm Arnold to Philip Glass, James MacMillan and – most recently - Eric Whitacre.

Julian Lloyd Webber’s many recordings have received worldwide acclaim. His Brit-award winning Elgar Concerto conducted by Yehudi Menuhin was chosen as the finest ever version by BBC Music Magazine and his coupling of Britten’s Cello Symphony and Walton’s Concerto was described by Gramophone magazine as being “beyond any rival”. Lloyd Webber has also recorded several highly successful CDs of shorter pieces including Cello Moods, Cradle Song and Evening Songs: “It would be difficult to find better performances of this kind of repertoire anywhere on records of today or yesterday” - Gramophone.

At the age of sixteen Julian Lloyd Webber won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music and he completed his studies in Geneva with the renowned cellist, Pierre Fournier. Since then he has collaborated with an extraordinary array of musicians from Yehudi Menuhin, Lorin Maazel, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Georg Solti to Elton John and Stephane Grappelli.

On 29th January 2012 Lloyd Webber performed the Delius Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Sir Andrew Davis at the Royal Festival Hall in a concert which marked, to the day, the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Lloyd Webber has been a Vice-President of the Delius Society for many years and - in recognition of his lifelong devotion to the music of Elgar - he was elected President of the Elgar Society in 2009.

Julian Lloyd Webber has won numerous awards for his services to music, including the Crystal Award (presented at the World Economic Forum in 1998) and the Classic FM Red Award in 2005. In 1994 he was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Music. As founder of the In Harmony Sistema England programme, Julian is working to promote personal and community development in some of England’s most deprived areas, through orchestral-based learning and musical experiences.

Julian is married to fellow cellist Jiaxin Cheng and is a passionate supporter of Leyton Orient football club. He was the London Underground's first official busker and was the only classical musician to perform at the Closing Ceremony of Olympics 2012.