Gemma Rosefield

Cello professor

Winner of the Pierre Fournier Award in 2007, Gemma Rosefield made her concerto debut at the age of sixteen when she won First Prize in the European Music for Youth Competition in Oslo, playing a televised performance of the Saint-Saëns Concerto with the Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Described by The Strad as ‘a mesmerising musical treasure’, by the London Evening Standard as ‘a phenomenal talent’, and featured in BBC Music Magazine as ‘one to watch’, Gemma made her solo debut in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and in The Diligentia, The Hague, in the New Masters International Recital Series. She gave the Pierre Fournier Award recital at Wigmore Hall, as well as the 2008 and 2009 Jacqueline du Pré Memorial Concerts at the same venue.

Gemma has played throughout Europe, the USA, Russia, Japan, Mexico, Kenya and New Zealand. She played Michael Ellison’s Concerto for Cello and Turkish Instruments with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, broadcast on BBC Radio 3, performed the premiere of a new work for Cello and Choir by Cecilia McDowall at Westminster Abbey, and gave the UK Premiere of Concello, for Cello and Orchestra, by Maciej Zielinski at the Presteigne Festival. She was subsequently invited to perform Concello in Krakow with Sinfonietta Cracovia. Gemma performed Edward Gregson’s cello concerto Concerto for Chris, as well as giving the world premiere performance of Robert Peate’s Knucklas Arches at the Presteigne Festival of Music and the Arts.

Gemma is cellist of Ensemble 360, Royal Philharmonic Society Medal Winners, whose performances are described by the Independent as ‘brimming with body and soul, with passion, vitality and virtuosity, whose performances never cease to amaze’. As cellist of the Leonore Piano Trio with pianist Tim Horton and violinist Benjamin Nabarro, she has made several recordings for Hyperion Records. The Trio’s premiere recording of the two Piano Trios by Arensky was described by the Observer as ‘revelatory’ with ‘sumptuous breadth and beguiling warmth’. The Gramophone commented that the Trio played ‘with truly glorious affection’ and that ‘it is hard to imagine playing of a greater intensity’. This CD was BBC Radio3 disc of the week.

Gemma plays on a cello made in Naples in 1704 by Alessandro Gagliano, formerly owned and played by the Prince Regent.

Faculties / departments: Strings