Julian Lloyd Webber is a British classical cellist from London, United Kingdom, born in 1951. He records on Audio Network.

Career

He is widely known for collaborations with a wide range of conductors and musicians, including Yehudi Menuhin, Lorin Maazel, Neville Marriner, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Georg Solti, Stephane Grappelli, Elton John and Cleo Laine. He also gives premieres of new works and has inspired compositions for cello by Malcolm Arnold, Joaquin Rodrigo, James MacMillan and Philip Glass.

Recordings

His recordings include the Elgar Concerto with Yehudi Menuhin, which wins a Brit Award and is chosen by BBC Music Magazine as the finest version of the work. Other notable recordings include the Dvorak Concerto with Vaclav Neumann and the Czech Philharmonic, Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with the London Symphony Orchestra under Maxim Shostakovich, and Britten’s Cello Symphony and Walton’s Cello Concerto with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, which Gramophone describes as beyond any rival.

He also records several collections of short pieces for Universal Classics, including Made In England, Cello Moods and Cradle Song, which also receive strong praise from Gramophone.

Other projects and performances

His more than fifty premiere recordings include works by a range of composers. He performs Michael Nyman’s Double Concerto for Cello and Saxophone on BBC Television, Gavin Bryars’ 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, appears on Orange Mountain. He also records Phantasia, based on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera, with violinist Sarah Chang, and Unexpected Songs, which includes 21 tracks and collaborations with harpist Catrin Finch and singer Michael Ball.

Instrument

He plays the Barjansky Stradivarius cello, dating from around 1690.