Alexander Baillie

Alexander Baillie is internationally recognised as one of the finest cellists of his generation. He began playing the cello at the comparatively late age of twelve having been directly inspired by the late Jacqueline du Pré. He went on to study at London’s Royal College of Music with Joan Dickson and Anna Shuttleworth and with André Navarra in Vienna.

Appearances with British orchestras have included the Elgar Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Litton, the Schumann Concerto with the BBC Symphony under Marek Janowski at the Proms, the Walton Concerto under the late Sir Alexander Gibson with the Royal Philharmonic, the Dvorak Concerto with the City of Birmingham Symphony under Sir Simon Rattle. He has also directed and performed the Haydn and Boccherini concertos with the English Chamber Orchestra.

Alexander Baillie’s contribution to contemporary music has seen the Canadian premieres of Penderecki’s 2nd Cello Concerto in 1992 and the H.K. Gruber Concerto in Winnipeg, and most recently Andrew MacDonald’s new concerto (commissioned by the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra). Over the last decade he has performed six times at the BBC Proms, premiering Colin Matthew’s Concerto in 1984, in 1988 Henze’s “Sieben Liebeslieder” under the composer’s direction, in 1989 Takemitsu’s “Orion and Pleiades”, the Delius and Schumann Concertos and in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto.

Alexander Baillie’s recent engagements have included touring the Elgar Concerto in Germany, concerts at the Royal Palace in Oman, Shostakovich Cello Concerto No2 in Boston under Benjamin Zander, and Haydn’s C Major under John Eliot Gardiner. The 2000 season includes recitals at the Wigmore Hall, the European premiere of George Lloyd’s recently discovered cello concerto, the premiere of Stephen Watson’s new concerto with the Hallé, performances in the 2nd International Festival au Cote des Isles, France and touring with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland. In addition a CD will be released shortly of rare Russian romantic cello and piano music with pianist Dominic Harlan.

Alexander Baillie is a founder member of the highly acclaimed chamber music group Alia Musica in Berlin which made their debut at the Wigmore Hall in 1999 and will perform at the Berlin Festwoche in the year 2000.

Recordings include Elgar’s Concerto on Conifer, the Tippet Triple Concerto on Nimbus with Sir Michael Tippett conducting, and the recently released Gordon Crosse Concerto with the BBC Symphony and Martyn Brabbins on the N.M.C. label. His recordings of the Britten Cello Suites and the Sonata achieved the highest acclaim in the New York press.

Alexander Baillie was recently appointed Professor of Cello at the Bremen Hochschule and he is co-founder of “Gathering of the Clans” a part time cello school which runs holiday study camps for young cellists. He is also visiting Guest Professor at London’s Royal College of Music.

“Many other cellists have made a strong claim on this repertory (Britten’s Suites for Cello). Perhaps the most successful is Alexander Baillie.” New York Times