George Kennaway

I am a cellist and musicologist, who studied at the universities of Newcastle, Oxford, Leeds, and the Guildhall School of Music.  My research interests are in 18th- and 19th-century performance practices, topic analysis, relationships between art and music, and philosophical contexts for historical performance studies. Publications include Playing the Cello 1780-1930 (2014), John Gunn: Musician Scholar in Enlightenment Britain (2021), and many articles and book chapters on aspects of 19th-century performance. I am also the leading UK authority on the work of the Lithuanian composer/artist Mikalojus Čiurlionis (1875–1911) with publications in the UK and Lithuania, and recently joined the editorial team creating a new critical edition of his music. I am currently researching aspects of baroque music editing and performance in the early 20th century, the early recordings of Pablo Casals, musicians’ biographies, and an edition of Dotzauer’s cello studies, and am working on a book about the Berlin cellist Heinrich Grünfeld (1855–1931). I was a cello pupil of Marie Dare, Valentine Orde, and Christopher Bunting. He freelanced with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra before joining Opera North as co-principal cello in 1979, leaving this post in 2008 to be a post-doctoral researcher with Clive Brown at the University of Leeds.  I now regularly appear as a soloist and chamber music player, on modern, 19th-century, and baroque cello. I play in the Meiningen Ensemble, a chamber group specialising in the historical performance of 19th-century repertoire. I have conducted orchestras in Central Asia, Russia, Lithuania, Italy, and the UK, and have lectured at conservatoires and universities in the UK, France, Lithuania, Belgium, and Finland.
Phone: 07952597420