Guy Johnston
Cello
At a glance
Guy Johnston
Cello
"A gripping performance"New York Times
Biography —
Guy Johnston is one of the most exciting British cellists of his generation. His early successes included winning the BBC Young Musician of the Year, the Shell London Symphony Orchestra Gerald MacDonald Award and a Classical Brit. He has performed with many leading international orchestras including the London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Ulster Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony, Britten Sinfonia, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Orquestra Sinfonica do Estado de Sao Paulo, Moscow Philharmonic and St Petersburg Symphony.
Recent and forthcoming seasons have included concertos with BBC Philharmonic (Ilan Volkov), BBC Symphony Orchestra (Sakari Oramo), Philharmonia, Aurora Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia and Rheinische Philharmonie. Guy continues to play chamber music and recitals at prestigious venues such as Wigmore Hall, Queen Elisabeth Hall, Louvre Museum and the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and in festivals across Europe and is presenting programmes with Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Melvyn Tan.
A prolific recording artist, Guy’s recent recordings include Howells’ Cello Concerto with Britten Sinfonia (a piece he also gave the premiere of) and a celebration disc of the tricentenary of his David Tecchler cello, collaborating with the acclaimed Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, where the cello was made. The 2018/19 season saw the release of his recording Themes and Variations with Tom Poster, comprising works by Beethoven, Grieg, Chopin, MacMillan, Schumann and Martinu.
Guy is a passionate advocate for contemporary composers regular commissioning, performing and recording new works. He gave the premiere of Charlotte Bray’s ‘Falling in the Fire’ at the BBC Proms in 2015 and Emma Ruth Richards ‘Until a Reservoir no longer remains’ (with Sheku Kanneh-Mason). He has recently commissioned works by composers such as David Matthews, Mark Simpson and Joseph Phibbs.
In addition to a busy and versatile career as an international soloist, chamber musician and guest principal, Guy is an inspiring leader of young musicians as a patron of several charities which promote music education for school children and young people including Music First and Future Talent. He is a board member of the Pierre Fournier Award for young cellists.
He is Artistic Director of the Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival and a founder member of the award-winning Aronowitz Ensemble. He is Associate Professor of Cello at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York and a guest Professor of Cello at the Royal Academy of Music, where he was awarded an Hon. ARAM in 2015.
Guy plays a 1714 David Tecchler cello, generously on loan from the Godlee-Tecchler Trust which is administered by The Royal Society of Musicians.
News —

Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival Goes Online
Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival 2020 entirely available online Read more
Guy Johnston and Fenella Humphreys perform for Absolute Classics ‘Live Room’
'Absolute Classics Live Room': Ikon Artists Guy Johnston and Fenella Humphreys have both contributed to the series. Read more

“brilliantly executed”, “4 stars” – Johnston & Tan at Wigmore Hall
Guy Johnston and Melvyn Tan's performance as part of the Wigmore Hall and Radio 3's live streamed concerts have received critical acclaim: Read more
Guy Johnston plays live outside local pub!
Guy Johnston has started performing live, socially distanced, concerts outside his local pub in the village of Cerne Abbas in Dorset. Read more

Wigmore Hall Radio 3 Live Stream to feature Ikon Artists
Michael Collins, Guy Johnston and Melvyn Tan perform as part of Wigmore Hall BBC Radio 3 Special live broadcasts. Read more
Photos —
Reviews —
“The secret to performing Howells’s music – apart from ensuring those rich harmonies are bang in tune – is to catch its very English way of expressing deep feeling, which works by repression and hints rather than direct statement. Guy Johnston does this especially well in his performance of the Cello Concerto, which emerges as a substantial piece. And it’s not all repression; with the surprisingly joyful and energetic Finale he really seizes the moment.”
Daily Telegraph
" A gripping performance"
New York Times
“The playing is consistently polished and elegant"
BBC Music Magazine
Selected Discography —

Howells Cello Concerto
BBC Music Magazineeloquent performance" 5 Stars

Themes and Variations
The Stradsparklingly played with an effortless sense of style and brio, captured truthfully in glowing sound

Holst Invocation
The Strad“Guy Johnston captures its wistful, yearning quality to perfection, surfing the music’s impassioned dynamic range with a beguiling, velvet sonority that opens out thrillingly in moments of special intensity.”

Tecchler's Cello
Classical Music Magazine“Johnston offers a stunning tour-de-force. Imaginatively conceived and beautifully performed, this disc is a winner.”

Moeran Cello Concerto
BBC Music MagazineIn Guy Johnston[,] [the Cello Concerto] has a soloist entirely sensitive to its swift and sometimes paradoxical changes of mood: this is an effective performance of a little-heard and underrated work.

Milo
The New York Times...gripping performance

David Matthews Orchestral Works
BBC Radio 3Guy Johnston is a technically immaculate soloist
Related Media —
Guy Johnston in Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival
Guy Johnston, the Artistic Director of the festival welcomes a wider audience through its virtual edition of the festival. View on YouTubeGuy Johnston - Live in the Woods
Guy performs Bach G Major Prelude, Suite 1 View on YouTubeGuy Johnston with Tom Poster
Guy gives a duo concert for Absolute Classics audiences View on YouTubeLe Cygne (The Swan), Saint Saens
Performance with Lydia Lowndes for Live in the Woods View on YouTubeWigmore Hall Live
Recital with Melvyn Tan as part of Wigmore Hall Live streamed during COVID-19 View on YouTubeRachmaninov, Sonata Op.19 in G minor
with Tom Poster View on YouTubeGuy Johnston records Herbert Howells cello concerto
A recent behind the scenes look at the recording session View on YouTubeThemes and Variations recording with Guy Johnston & Tom Poster - Macmillan
View on YouTubeBeethoven 7 Variations on 'Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen', WoO 46 (Magic Flute Variations)
View on YouTubeLutosławski - Grave for cello and piano
Lutosławski - Grave for cello and piano performed by Guy Johnston (cello) and Tom Poster (piano) at the Wgmore Hall, London. View on YouTubeBarber: Sonata for Cello and Piano in C Minor , Op. 6
with Chiao-Wen Cheng at Eastman School of Music View on YouTubeDownloads —
Contact —
Name
- Nicola Semple