MEDIA RELEASE For Immediate Release
Award-Winning British Cellist To Play On Auckland’s North Shore
Award-winning British cellist Tony Woollard will perform a one-off solo recital at The PumpHouse on Auckland ’s North
Shore on March 16th.
Woollard will be visiting New Zealand with the Urban Soul Orchestra as part of the People In Your Neighbourhood Project,
supported by the British Council.
For this unique performance, he will present a programme entitled “Songs you've not heard before”, a collection of
sublime new cello music linked by stories told by the cellist.
The composers are all British and include Robert Saxton, William Walton, Yvonne Parsons, Jonathan Rathbone, Sally
Beamish, Ivan Hussey and Benjamin Britten.
This is Woollard’s first time performing in New Zealand , and heis very excited to share both these pieces and their
stories. “Every Prince of Wales in England has to learn the cello”, Tony says, and invites New Zealand audiences to
“come and hear the piece written for Prince Charles”.
Of Woollard, Music Matters Magazine says, ““[he] played throughout with great artistry, technical skills and humane
warmth on his wonderful cello”.
Woollard studied the cello with David Smith at Surrey University before gaining a post-graduate scholarship to the
Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he studied with Raphael Wallfisch. He later won a Swiss government scholarship
for advanced cello study in Lugano , Switzerland , where he spent 5 years studying with Robert Cohen.
He has won many prizes including first prize at the John Lil Awards and the South East Music Awards. In 1998 he played
in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and was a finalist in the European Beethoven Competition.
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