Mats Lidström


Mats Lidström is a Swedish solo cellist, recording artist, chamber musician, composer, teacher and publisher.
His first teacher was Maja Vogl, of the music conservatory in Gothenburg. He then went on to study at the Juilliard School with Leonard Rose whose own teaching goes straight back to Luigi Boccherini.
Lidström plays the "Grützmacher" Rocca.

Career

In performance

Lidström has performed and recorded as soloist with some of the world's major orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Czech Philharmonic and the Dallas Symphony, with conductors such as André Previn, Andrew Litton, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Maxim Shostakovich, Leif Segerstam, Osmo Vänskä, Franz Welser-Möst and Lü Jia.
He has worked as principal cellist with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, The Philharmonia, Britten Sinfonia and St Martin-in-the-Fields of London, The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic and Royal Concertgebouw orchestras, Bergen Philharmonie, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and the major symphony orchestras of Sweden.
Lidström gave the Scandinavian premiere of Korngold's Cello Concerto which was recorded for Swedish Radio Channel P2.
Lidström commissioned and gave the world premiere of Rolf Martinsson's first cello concerto on 20 April 2005 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted Mario Venzago.
In 1986 Lidström was invited to Moscow to play Dmitri Kabalevsky's Second Cello Concerto Op. 77 to the composer. Time was also spent with the composer in his home, sight-reading Lidström’s new Tango in C major. The concerto was later recorded on CD conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy.
He has performed chamber music in many of the major halls, including Alice Tully Hall and the 92nd Street Y, Théâtre du Châtelet and Cité de la Musique, Musikverein, Gulbenkian and the Barbican, Wigmore, Cadogan, Queen Elizabeth and Royal Festival halls of London.
Lidström seeks out neglected but beautiful music for the cello and has produced several highly acclaimed and award-winning CDs. He appears on EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, BIS, Hyperion, Musica Sveciae, Opus 3,, as well as on his own label CelloLid.com.
Lidström has appeared on TV and radio throughout Europe, Japan, the U.S and South America.
He has performed at many festivals including Aspen, Kingston, Pensacola, Cello Encounter and across Europe, including the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Bulgaria, Denmark, Spain and Sweden.
Lidström was the artistic director of the 2004/05 festival From Sweden in London, the greatest undertaking for Swedish classical music abroad by the Swedish government.
His ancestor on his father's side, Richard Dybeck, wrote the Swedish national anthem.

Teaching

Lidström was appointed professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1993,.
Prior to the Royal Academy, he taught at the Gothenburg University, Sweden.
He has given master classes at conservatories in San Francisco, Cleveland and Oberlin, as well as in Australia, Brazil, Spain, South America, Poland, Bulgaria, Denmark, the UK and Sweden.

Composer, publisher, arranger

Education publications

Lidström's compilation of orchestral excerpts for Boosey & Hawkes, The Orchestral Cellist, formed the basis for his publishing company CelloLid.com.
The Essential Warm-up Routine for Cellists gives practical guidance and daily warm-up exercises to support all facets of cello-playing.
The Beauty of Scale explores the standard scales and contains chapters on alternative scales such as pizzicato, unisons, 4ths and 7ths, and also on how to practise scales.

For various instruments

Compositions include Rigoletto Fantasy for cello and orchestra on Verdi's opera, Interlude for string quartet and orchestra, Maze of Love for voice, piano and orchestra, Marche Triomphale for two pianos and percussion, Carnival in Venice for violin and two cellos, René Descartes in Stockholm, for solo recorder, Christmas Cookies for mezzo-soprano and 3 cellos, Pigalle divertimento for two cellos.

For cello and piano

Suite Tintin – 9 scenes from The Adventures of Tintin,. Premiered at the Wigmore Hall,London, March 2003 with Peter Jablonski.
Four sets of pieces for young players, concert suite, Swedish Rhapsody, Sunflowers in the night and other love songs, and Le Cygne, in honour of Camille Saint-Saëns. See CelloLid.com.
In addition to his original compositions and transcriptions, Lidström has published an ongoing series called If Bach was a cellist, transcriptions and adaptations based on a fantasy that Bach intended everything he wrote for the cello.
Of the many transcriptions for cello as well as other instrumental combinations, composers include Rameau, Chopin, Schumann, Puccini, Debussy, Kreisler, Scriabin and Cole Porter. For his Suite de Pulcinella, Lidström has obtained a performance license from the Stravinsky estate.

Solo cello

On CD

Educational