Natalie Clein (born

Poole Poole () is a coastal town and seaport on the south coast of England in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area in Dorset, England. The town is east of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

) is a British classical

cellist The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

. Her mother is a professional violinist. Her sister is the actress

Louisa Clein Louisa Clein (born 6 July 1979) is a British actress, known for portraying the role of Maya Stepney in the ITV soap opera ''Emmerdale''. Life and career Clein was born in Poole, Dorset to Jewish parents, Peter and Channa Clein (née Salomon ...

Early life and education

Clein started playing the

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

at the age of six, and attended Talbot Heath School in Bournemouth, Dorset. She studied with

Anna Shuttleworth Anna Shuttleworth (2 May 1927 – 2 March 2021Anna Shuttleworth (2n ...

and

Alexander Baillie Alexander Baillie (born 6 January 1956) is an English cellist, recognised internationally as one of the finest of his generation. He is currently professor of cello at the Bremen Hochschule and previously taught at Birmingham Conservatoire, as ...

at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music (RCM) is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including pe ...

where she was awarded the

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was al ...

Scholarship. She has also studied with Heinrich Schiff in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Professional career

Clein came to prominence after winning the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 1994 with her performance of the

Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...

Cello Concerto A cello concerto (sometimes called a violoncello concerto) is a concerto for solo cello with orchestra or, very occasionally, smaller groups of instruments. These pieces have been written since the Baroque era if not earlier. However, unlike instru ...

''. She was the first British winner of the Eurovision Competition for Young Musicians in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, playing the

Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and thereafter was regarded ...

Sonata In music a sonata (; pl. ''sonate'') literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''cantare'', "to sing"), a piece ''sung''. The term evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms until th ...

'' and Elgar's concerto. Her other awards include the Ingrid zu Solms Cultur Preis at the 2003 Kronberg Academie and the Classical BRIT Award for Young British Performer of 2005. Clein made her concerto debut at

The Proms The BBC Proms is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in central London. Robert Newman founded The Proms in 1895. Since 1927, the ...

in August 1997, performing the

Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( ; ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions ...

Cello Concerto in C major with Sir Roger Norrington and the National Youth Chamber Orchestra of Great Britain. In 1999 she was invited as one of the first artists to join the

BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme (also known as the NGA scheme) was launched in 1999 by Adam Gatehouse as part of the BBC's commitment to young musical talent. Each autumn six or seven young artists at the beginning of careers on the ...

. She is also a regular chamber musician with such musicians as Julius Drake, Charles Owen and Kathryn Stott, as well as the Belcea Quartet, Jerusalem Quartet, Takács Quartet, and the Nash Ensemble. Clein has collaborated with author Jeanette Winterson on a performance piece which utilises Bach's

Goldberg Variations The ''Goldberg Variations'' (), BWV 988, is a musical composition for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of thirty variations. First published in 1741, it is named after Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, who may ...

in conjunction with Winterson's text. She has also worked with choreographer and dancer Carlos Acosta. She records for Hyperion and has recorded the two Cello Concertos by Camille Saint-Saëns as well as Bloch's Schelomo and Bruch's Kol Nidrei with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra to great critical acclaim as well as receiving a Diapason d’Or, BBC Critics Choice and Gramophone Choice awards . She has also recorded a solo disc with works by Bloch, Ligeti and Dallapiccola and the solo Kodaly sonata . She has previously released three discs for EMI. Her performances have taken Natalie Clein to orchestras including the Philharmonia, Hallé, Bournemouth Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Montreal Symphony, Orchestre National de Lyon, New Zealand Symphony and Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires. She has performed with conductors including Sir Mark Elder, Sir Roger Norrington, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Leonard Slatkin, Stéphane Denève and Heinrich Schiff. She is a keen recital and chamber performer and has curated a series of concerts for BBC Radio 3 at LSO St Luke's. She regularly works with contemporary composers such as Judith Weir, Thomas Larcher, Brian Elias, Charlotte Bray, Deborah Pritchard, Deidre Gribbin and Dobrinka Tabakova. In 2015, Natalie Clein was appointed Artist in Residence at Oxford university for 4 years. She will curate a concert series in the context of this position. She is Professor of cello at the HMT Rostock and appears regularly on international juries such as the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels and the ARD Wettbewerb in Munich. She is artistic director of the Purbeck International Chamber Music Festival (Dorset, UK). She plays on the "Simpson" Guadagnini cello (1777). Clein was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(OBE) in the

2021 New Year Honours The 2021 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebratio ...

for services to music.

Discography

*1994: Duruflé: ''Requiem''. Hyperion *2004: Brahms/Schubert: ''Cello Sonatas'', with Charles Owen, ''piano''. Classics for Pleasure *2006: Chopin/Rachmaninov: ''Cello Sonatas'' with Charles Owen, ''piano''. EMI Classics UK *2007: Elgar: ''Cello Concerto'' with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vernon Handley (conductor). EMI Classics UK *2009: Kodály: ' Sonata for Solo Cello, Adagio, Sonatina, ''Epigrams'', ''Romance lyrique'' for cello & piano with Julius Drake, piano. Hyperion *2012: Bloch/Bruch: ''Schelomo, Kol Nidrei & other works'' with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ilan Volkov (conductor). Hyperion *2013: Saint-Saëns: ''Cello Concerto No.1, No.2 & other works'' with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Manze (conductor). Hyperion *2017: Bridge, Clarke “ cello Sonatas “ with Christian Ihle Hadland . Hyperion * 2019: Beethoven “Triple Concerto “ with Laurence Equilbey, Insular Orchestra, Conunova, Kadouch . Warner/Erato.

References

External links

Natalie Clein official website

Natalie Clein official MySpace music page

VIDEO: Elgar Sospiri
performed by Natalie Clein and conducted by

Vernon Handley Vernon George "Tod" Handley (11 November 1930 – 10 September 2008) was a British conductor (music), conductor, known in particular for his support of British composers. Early life and education He was born of a Welsh father and an Irish mothe ...

Natalie Clein on EMI Classics

Natalie Clein on Rayfield Allied Management
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clein, Natalie 1977 births Living people British classical cellists Jewish classical musicians People from Poole Alumni of the Royal College of Music Eurovision Young Musicians winners People educated at Talbot Heath School British women classical cellists BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists 20th-century British classical musicians Officers of the Order of the British Empire 20th-century British musicians 20th-century British women musicians 21st-century classical musicians 21st-century British musicians 21st-century British women musicians 20th-century British cellists 21st-century British cellists