James Barralet - violoncello
James Barralet is fast becoming one of the most sought after young cellists in the UK. Currently, he is simultaneously a Park Lane Group Young Artist, a Making Music Young Artist and a Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist and is represented by Margaret Murphy Management. His debut recording of solo cello works by Kodaly, Britten and Roxburgh is due for release in 2009 on the Landor Records label.
His "flair and commitment which makes for strong communication with his audience" (Peter Grahame Woolf) attracted outstanding critical praise for his Wigmore Hall debut in 2009, and his Purcell Room debut the year before prompted the Strad magazine to write "imposing: he knows how to draw an audience in" and the Times: "no doubting the strength of feeling". Conductor, Benjamin Zander commented "a great cellist, moreover a great musician" and pianist Clifford Benson remarked on James’s "infinite musicality".
James is a unique musician with a particular interest in Indian music. His cello and tabla duo with tabla master, Sankar Prosad Chowdhury, has performed at many major festivals in the UK, presenting Indian music in a way which is accessible to an uninitiated audience. He will perform in 2009 as soloist with the London Sitar Ensemble at the Purcell Room in London. His interest in Indian music arose during a six-month teaching visit to Calcutta in 1998 and was he was trained at the Ali Akbar School of Indian Classical Music in Basel.
James does not limit himself to performing - his arrangements for eight celli and various other combinations have been performed at festivals throughout the world.
James is a laureate of numerous awards including the 2007 Landor Records competition, the highly prestigious 2003 Royal Philharmonic Society Julius Isserlis scholarship and the Muriel Taylor Cello Scholarship to name but a few. He has received awards, prizes and scholarships from the English Speaking Union, the Wingate Trust, the Denne Gilkes Memorial Trust, the Haverhill Soloists Competition, the Swiss Government, the Myra Hess Trust, the Tillett Trust, the Bromsgrove International Competition, the Shirley Cattaral Trust, the Countess of Munster Trust, the Hattorti Foundation, the Martin Music Trust and the Sir John Barbirolli Cello Competition.
Thanks to the invaluable support of these trusts James was able to study with Hannah Roberts at the Royal Northern College of Music in the UK for five years and then with Thomas Demenga at Basel Hochschule für Musik in Switzerland for three years. He graduated from both with the highest honours – a first class degree and two performance diplomas from the RNCM and the Soloists Diploma from Basel. He has also benefited a great deal from masterclasses, particularly at the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove where he has studied with Steven Isserlis, Ralph Kirshbaum, Miklos Perenyi and Boris Pergamenschikow. He has also had masterclass courses with Pieter Wispelwey, Robert Cohen and David Geringas.
James has climbed Europe’s highest mountain, Mont Blanc and Switzerland’s highest mountain, Monte Rosa. In 1999 he made his own electric cello. James plays an 1855 French cello by Henri Derazey and a 1910 French bow by Vigneron.
