Basically Quartets

George Kennaway is a cellist, conductor, teacher and musicologist who lives in Leeds, in the north of England. He studied at the universities of Newcastle and Oxford, the Guildhall School of Music, the Salzburg Mozarteum and the University of Leeds. His cello teachers included Marie Dare, Valentine Orde, Michael Edmonds, Christopher Bunting and Ioan Davies. He has appeared as soloist in recitals and concertos throughout the north of England on both modern and baroque cello, giving the UK première of Kurt Weill's cello sonata in 1985. After many years as co-principal cello in the Orchestra of Opera North, he joined the research staff of the Leeds University School of Music in 2008, working on a new project to establish a catalogue of 19th-century performing editions of chamber music. He holds a PhD in 19th-century cello performance practice. In educational work he has participated in many school workshop projects and has coached youth orchestras in Scotland and the north of England, and has given many pre-performance talks for Opera North on subjects ranging from Handel to Zemlinsky, for the major concert halls in the north of England, and most recently for the Leeds Lieder festival. He has also taught adult education courses for Manchester University, Nottingham University and for the Workers' Educational Association. He has taught the cello at a number of institutions and privately for over thirty years, and is particularly experienced in working with amateur musicians. In 2000 he set up Yorkshire Late Starters Strings for adult beginners, and he has regularly coached chamber music groups both for them and for the East London Late Starters Orchestra. He now performs regularly with the string quartet attached to the Leeds University Centre for Historical Performance.