Natalie Clein (born Poole,

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

) is a British classical cellist. Her mother is a professional violinist. Her sister is the actress Louisa Clein.

Early life and education

Clein started playing the

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G ...

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

where she was awarded the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Scholarship. She has also studied with

Heinrich Schiff Heinrich Schiff (18 November 1951 – 23 December 2016) was an Austrian cellist and conductor. Early life Heinrich Schiff was born on 18 November 1951 in Gmunden, Austria. His parents, Helga (née Riemann) and Helmut Schiff, were composers. H ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Professional career

Clein came to prominence after winning the

BBC Young Musician of the Year BBC Young Musician is a televised national music competition broadcast biennially on BBC Television and BBC Radio 3. Originally BBC Young Musician of the Year, its name was changed in 2010. The competition, a former member of the European Uni ...

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

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, 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 First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throughout his life as a major compo ...

'' Sonata'' 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 or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...

in August 1997, performing the

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

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 n ...

. 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 The Nash Ensemble of London is an English chamber ensemble. It was founded by Artistic Director Amelia Freedman and Rodney Slatford in 1964, while they were students at the Royal Academy of Music, and was named after the Nash Terraces around ...

. Clein has collaborated with author

Jeanette Winterson Jeanette Winterson (born 27 August 1959) is an English writer. Her first book, '' Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit'', was a semi-autobiographical novel about a sensitive teenage girl rebelling against convention. Other novels explore gender pola ...

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 30 variations. First published in 1741, it is named after Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, who may also hav ...

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. A solo disc with works by Bloch, Ligeti and Dallapiccola was released on 27 January 2017. 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 Thomas Larcher, Brian Elias and Dobrinka Tabakova. In 2015, Natalie Clein was appointed Artist in Residence for 4 years. She will curate a concert series in the context of this position. 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 (OBE) in the 2021 New Year Honours 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: ''Cell Concerto No.1, No.2 & other works'' with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Manze (conductor). Hyperion

References

External links

Natalie Clein official website
(access forbidden.)
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, known in particular for his support of British composers. He was born of a Welsh father and an Irish mother into a musical family in Enfield, Middle ...

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 Winners of Eurovision Young Musicians People educated at Talbot Heath School British women classical cellists BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists 20th-century 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 cellists 21st-century cellists