Julian Lloyd Webber


Julian Lloyd Webber is a British solo cellist, the principal of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the founder of the In Harmony music education programme.

Early years and education

Julian Lloyd Webber is the second son of the composer William Lloyd Webber and his wife Jean Johnstone. He is the younger brother of the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. The composer Herbert Howells was his godfather. Lloyd Webber was educated at three schools in London: Wetherby School, Westminster Under School and University College School. He then won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music and completed his studies with Pierre Fournier in Geneva in 1973.

Career

Lloyd Webber made his professional debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, in September 1972 when he gave the first London performance of the cello concerto by Sir Arthur Bliss. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with a wide variety of musicians, including conductors Yehudi Menuhin, Lorin Maazel, Neville Marriner, Georg Solti, Yevgeny Svetlanov, Andrew Davis and Esa-Pekka Salonen, pianists Clifford Curzon and Murray Perahia as well as Stéphane Grappelli, Elton John and Cleo Laine. He was described in The Strad as the " of British cellists".
His many recordings include his BRIT Award-winning Elgar Cello Concerto conducted by Yehudi Menuhin, 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 Cello Concerto with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields which was described as "beyond any rival" by Edward Greenfield in Gramophone magazine, He has also made several recordings of short pieces for Universal Classics including Made in England, Cello Moods, Cradle Song and English Idyll.
Lloyd Webber premiered the recordings of more than 50 works, inspiring new compositions for cello from composers as diverse as Malcolm Arnold, Joaquín Rodrigo James MacMillan, and Philip Glass. More recent concert performances have included four further works composed for Lloyd Webber – Michael Nyman's Double Concerto for Cello and Saxophone on BBC Television, Gavin Bryars's Concerto in Suntory Hall, Tokyo, Glass's Cello Concerto at the Beijing International Festival and Eric Whitacre's The River Cam at the Southbank Centre. His recording of the Glass concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic conducted by Gerard Schwarz was released on Glass' Orange Mountain label in September 2005.
Other recordings include The Art of Julian Lloyd Webber, Evening Songs, A Tale of Two Cellos, Vivaldi Concertos for Two Cellos and his debut recording as a conductor of English music for strings And the Bridge Is Love.
In May 2001, he was granted the first busker's licence on the London Underground.
Demonstrating his involvement in music education, he formed the Music Education Consortium with James Galway and Evelyn Glennie in 2003. As a result of successful lobbying by the Consortium, on 21 November 2007, the UK government announced an infusion of £332 million for music education. In 2008, the British government invited Lloyd Webber to be chairman of its In Harmony programme which is based on the Venezuelan social programme El Sistema. The government-commissioned Henley Review of Music Education reported, "There is no doubt that they have delivered life-changing experiences." In July 2011 the founder of El Sistema in Venezuela, José Antonio Abreu, recognised In Harmony as part of the El Sistema worldwide network. Further, in November 2011 the British government announced additional support for In Harmony across England by extending funding from the Department for Education and adding funding from Arts Council England from 2012 to 2015. Lloyd Webber now chairs the charity Sistema England. In October 2012 he led the Incorporated Society of Musicians campaign against the implementation of the English Baccalaureate which proposed to remove arts subjects from the core curriculum. In February 2013 the government withdrew its plans.
Lloyd Webber has represented the music education sector on programmes such as BBC1's Question Time, The Andrew Marr Show, BBC2's Newsnight and BBC Radio 4's Today, The World at One, PM, Front Row and The World Tonight.
In May 2009, Lloyd Webber was elected President of the Elgar Society in succession to Sir Adrian Boult, Lord Menuhin, and Richard Hickox.
On 28 April 2014, Lloyd Webber announced his retirement from public performance as a cellist because of a herniated disc in his neck. His final public performance as a cellist was on 2 May 2014 at the Festival Theatre, Malvern, with the English Chamber Orchestra.
In September 2014, the charity Live Music Now announced Lloyd Webber as its public spokesman.
In March 2015, he was announced as principal of the Birmingham Conservatoire.

Honours and awards

Lloyd Webber 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 won the Best British Classical Recording in 1986 at the Brit Awards for his recording of Elgar's Cello Concerto with Sir Yehudi Menuhin and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Music in 1994 and has received honorary doctorates from the University of Hull, Plymouth University and Thames Valley University.
He is vice president of the Delius Society and a patron of Music in Hospitals and Children & the Arts. He has been an ambassador for the Prince's Trust for more than twenty years and a patron of CLIC Sargent for more than thirty years.
In September 2009 he joined the board of governors of the Southbank Centre. He was the Foundling Museum's Handel Fellow for 2010. He was the only classical musician chosen to play at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony.
On 16 April 2014 Lloyd Webber received the Incorporated Society of Musicians Distinguished Musician Award.

Personal life

Lloyd Webber is married to fellow cellist Jiaxin Cheng and the couple have one daughter, Jasmine Orienta. Lloyd Webber also has one son, David, from his former marriage to Zohra Mahmoud Ghazi, an exiled Afghan princess and great-niece of the last king of Afghanistan, Mohammed Zahir Shah.
He is a lifelong supporter of Leyton Orient football club.

Recordings

Cello and orchestra

ComposerWorkFirst performance
Malcolm ArnoldFantasy for CelloWigmore Hall, London, December 1987
Malcolm ArnoldCello ConcertoRoyal Festival Hall, London, March 1989
Richard Rodney BennettDream Sequence for Cello and PianoWigmore Hall, London, December 1994
Frank BridgeScherzetto for Cello and PianoSnape Maltings, April 1979
Frank BridgeOration for Cello and Orchestra Bromsgrove Festival, Worcestershire, April 1979
Gavin BryarsCello Concerto Barbican Centre, London, November 1995
Geoffrey BurgonSix Studies for Solo CelloPortsmouth Cathedral, June 1980
John DankworthFair Oak FusionFair Oak, Sussex, July 1979
Frederick DeliusRomance for Cello and PianoHelsinki Festival, Finland, June 1976
Edward ElgarRomance for Cello and PianoWigmore Hall, London, April 1985
Philip GlassCello ConcertoBeijing Festival, China, September 2001
Vladimír GodárBarcarolle for Cello, Strings, Harp and HarpsichordHellenic Centre, London, April 1994
Howard GoodallAnd the Bridge Is Love for Cello, Strings and HarpChipping Campden Festival, May 2008
Patrick HawesGloriette for Cello and PianoLeeds Castle, Kent, August 2008
Joseph Haydn Concerto in D, Hob. VIIb:4Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, November 1981
Christopher HeadingtonSerenade for Cello and StringsBanqueting House, London, January 1995
Karl JenkinsBenedictus for Cello, Choir and Orchestra from The Armed ManRoyal Albert Hall, London, April 2000
Philip LaneSoliloquy for Solo CelloWangford Festival, Suffolk, July 1972
Andrew Lloyd WebberVariationsSydmonton Festival, Newbury, July 1977
Andrew Lloyd WebberPhantasia Izmir Festival, Turkey, July 2008
William Lloyd WebberNocturne for Cello and PianoPurcell Room, London, February 1995
James MacMillanCello Sonata No. 2Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, April 2001
Michael NymanConcerto for Cello and SaxophoneRoyal Festival Hall, London, March 1997
Joaquín RodrigoConcierto como un divertimentoRoyal Festival Hall, London, April 1982
Peter SkellernFive Love Songs for Cello, Piano, Vocals and Brass QuintetSalisbury International Arts Festival, September 1982
Arthur SullivanCello Concerto Barbican Centre, London, April 1986
Ralph Vaughan WilliamsFantasia on Sussex Folk Tunes for Cello and OrchestraThree Choirs Festival, Gloucester, August 1983
William WaltonTheme for a Prince for Solo CelloAdrian Boult Hall, Birmingham, October 1998
Eric WhitacreThe River Cam for cello and stringsRoyal Festival Hall, London, April 2011

Publications