Julian Lloyd Webber is known as a cellist who is always willing to expand the horizons of the instrument's world. The son of composer William Lloyd Webber and brother of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, he studied with Douglas Cameron and Joan Dickson, and at the Royal Conservatory of Music in London, and also spent some time in Geneva with Pierre Fournier. His London debut was in 1971, in a recital, followed in 1972 by his concert debut performing the Cello Concerto of Arthur Bliss. His recording of that same work marked the first of what are now over 50 premiere recordings of works for the cello, many of them written for him. The Guildhall School of Music named him professor of cello in 1978, and he made his American debut in 1980 in New York. He wrote an account of his career in 1984, entitled Travels With My Cello, which happens to be the "Barjansky" Stradivarius, made around 1690. In appearances around the world, he has given premieres of concertos by Rodrigo (Concierto como un Divertimento, 1982), Malcolm Arnold (1989), Gavin Bryars (Farewell to Philosophy, 1995), and Philip Glass (2001, recorded in 2004 with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Gerard Schwarz). He has worked with many English orchestras and conductors, such as the London Symphony, Yehudi Menuhin, Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, James Judd and the Philharmonia Orchestra, but also more international artists, such as Maxim Shostakovich and Vaclav Neumann and the Czech Philharmonic. In his more adventuresome collaborations he has worked with Elton John, Cleo Laine, and even formed his own ensemble, ¡Bossa Nova! Lloyd Webber's recordings include the collections of shorter pieces and transcriptions Cello Moods, Cradle Songs, and Cello Song, and a retrospective of his work for Philips/Universal, Made in England, released in 2003.
