Jamie Walton

With a powerful and penetrating sound, Jamie Walton is becoming increasingly renowned for his purity of tone, emotionally engaging interpretations and relentless commitment to the music he believes in. Compared by critics to some of the great cellists of the past he takes great inspiration from an era when music was about individualism, not competition. Although born in Germany, Jamie was brought up in Britain and on hearing the cello at the age of seven immediately decided this was his future with unwavering certainty. After winning a scholarship to Wells Cathedral School and then the Royal Northern College of Music to study with the much missed Margaret Moncrieff he graduated with top qualifi cations going on to become one of the late William Pleeth’s last students, who wrote of Jamie: “He is a cellist of outstanding performance ability. Combining warmth of tone with a technical command that reaches dazzling proportions, he leaves little doubt as the success that lies ahead of him - he is a musician of great integrity whose performance gives great pleasure.”

Having appeared throughout much of Europe, the USA, New Zealand, Australia and the UK in some of the world’s most eminent halls, Jamie has given radio broadcasts in numerous festivals including Montpellier, Lucerne, Brighton, Ryedale, Harrogate, Ansbach, Schwabach, Schloss-Elmau, Chichester, Cheltenham, Three Choirs, International Newbury Spring Festival, the International Warwick Festival (complete Bach suites) and the Manchester International Cello Festival having won the Fournier Award. He has also given regular appearances and broadcasts in chamber music, concertos and recitals in Vienna and an antipodean tour of recitals and concertos broadcast on national radio and television - being the fi rst cellist to give a solo recital in the new Melbourne Recital Centre.

He and his long term duo partner Daniel Grimwood have emerged as one of the most dynamic and original partnerships of their generation, frequently lauded for their passionate and stirring interpretations, unifying chemistry and for championing lesser known repertoire they believe deserves wider recognition alongside the classics. They have given over 15 recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall and their charismatic partnership has taken them to over 20 countries and in some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls. This includes Birmingham’s Symphony Hall where their debut was a recital of Chopin for the Chopin festival, sharing the evening with Krystian Zimerman and leading to concerto performances at the same hall. They have also regularly appeared in recital at London’s Cadogan Hall, St John’s Smith Square, Kings Place, Fairfi eld Hall and Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall as well a personal invitation from Maestro Lorin Maazel to perform for his Chateauville Foundation, Virginia.

Jamie’s increasing discography in both concerto and recital is consistently receiving the highest critical acclaim and he is gaining a reputation as a supreme and original interpreter of the repertoire. As The Times recently put it: “Jamie follows his own star”. A frequent ‘fi ve-star’ CD of the month through likes of the Telegraph, the Times and BBC Music Magazine, the start of his concerto series with the Philharmonia/Alexander Briger (Saint-Saëns cello concertos) brought great critical acclaim. Developing a strong rapport in both performance and recording with this great orchestra his Elgar and Myaskovsky CD was internationally praised, comparing Jamie to Rostropovich (International Record Review) and Tortelier. This CD of the Elgar has gone to become a commercial success and described as one of the fi nest ever recorded (Telegraph) but more signifi cantly a departure from the interpretations made before it. This formed the start of an ‘Anglo-Russian trilogy’ and in October 2009 Signum Classics also released Shostakovich Concerto No.2 and Britten’s Cello Symphony with the same forces and received similar plaudits, including one from Norman Lebrecht who described it as “more than a performance; this is an act of interpretation”. The fi nal part of the trilogy was released on November 8th 2010 featuring the Shostakovich Cello Concerto No.1 and the Walton Concerto, which includes the world premiere of a revised ending Walton wrote in 1975.

Never wishing to be pigeon-holed Jamie insists on variety not just in his concert activities but also on record, hence this sonatas series recording project with his pianist Daniel Grimwood. This was launched with sonatas by Rachmaninov and Grieg which received a double fi ve-star Chamber Choice CD of the month in BBC Music Magazine (“Both players create a blazing climax, in which we taste the extent of their charismatic daring; this performance stands comparison with the very best”). In 2011 Jamie will record the Dvorák and Schumann concertos with the Philharmonia and record/ fi lm the three solo suites by Britten as part of a box set to celebrate Britten’s complete works for ‘cello. Further sonata releases include those by Britten, Shostakovich, Prokofi ev, Poulenc, Debussy and Franck.

Jamie is equally passionate about chamber music, which he describes as the pinnacle of musical expression and experience. He was asked to join the Wihan Quartet of Prague for their 20th Anniversary concert at the Rudolfi num in Prague which is now available on DVD and spurred him on to incorporate more chamber music into his musical life (although he considers his duoship with pianist Daniel Grimwood very much in this category). Having given over 70 concerts in the region of North Yorkshire, which he considers a second home, he set up and successfully launched the North York Moors Chamber Music Festival in 2009 to capacity audiences, and since its second sell-out year in August 2010 has now established itself as an annual event fi rmly on the musical map. Themed each year over a two-week period (‘Bach and Beyond’ 2009; ‘Vienna to France’ 2010 and ‘Paths to Russia’ 2011), Jamie invites soloists and chamber musicians to celebrate great chamber music in historical venues upon one of the most beautiful national parks in the world.

One of Jamie’s most distinctive signatures is his sound – he performs on a 1712 Guarneri – and since the fi rst recording he made upon it (Elgar/ Myaskovsky concertos) ‘sound’ has become one of the stand-out aspects of his playing, with an individual and unique timbre marking Jamie out as one of the most outstanding and relevant cellists of his generation.

www.jamiewalton.com