About this Artist
WENDY WARNER has become one of the leading cellists in the world. Her reputation and collective critical adulation now precedes her almost everywhere she goes and has undoubtedly reached global proportions with concerts from New York's Carnegie Hall to Boston's Symphony Hall, from Paris' Salle Pleyel to Berlin's Philharmonie. She has toured North America with the National Symphony Orchestra, Mstislav Rostropovich conducting and the Moscow Virtuosi, Vladimir Spivakov conducting.
Recent seasons have seen highly successful performances with many of the world's finest orchestras and conductors. These have included the Chicago Symphony, the Boston Symphony, the National Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra. In Europe and around the world she has performed with the London Symphony (Barbican Center, London), the Berlin Symphony (Philharmonie Hall, Berlin), the Moscow Virtuosi (Carnegie Hall, New York), the Hong Kong Philharmonic (Hong Kong), the French Radio Philharmonic Orchestra (Salle Pleyel, Paris), the Iceland Symphony (Reykjavik), and L'Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse (Toulouse).
In the past two years three CDs have been released featuring Wendy Warner. The first on Bridge Records with works for cello by Hindemith, the second featuring duos for cello and violin (with Rachel Barton) on Cedille Records and just recently the critics praised her recording of the Barber Concerto with Marin Alsop and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra on Naxos Records.
To date she has collaborated with Mstislav Rostropovich, Christoph Eschenbach, Andre Previn, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Vladimir Spivakov, Charles Dutoit, Eiji Oue and Michael Tilson Thomas amongst others. Wendy has appeared in recital throughout the world, including performances in Chicago, Milan and Tokyo and recently appeared with Anne-Sophie Mutter, performing the Brahms Concerto for Violin and Cello with L'Orchestre de Paris, Semyon Bychkov conducting.
In the 1994/95 season Wendy toured with the Moscow Virtuosi and Vladimir Spivakov in Toronto, Chicago and New York's Carnegie Hall. The same season brought her recital debut in Munich, followed by recitals and orchestral solo performances in Paris and in Los Angeles, as well as her debut with the European Soloists of Luxembourg at Frankfurt's Alter Oper, her solo debut with the Detroit Symphony (with Leslie Dunner); and performances with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine.
In the summer of 1996, Ms. Warner toured Japan as soloist with NHK and the Japan Philharmonic and appeared with the Dallas Symphony and in New York's Mostly Mozart Music Festival at Avery Fisher Hall.
Highlights of Ms. Warner's recent seasons saw her debut with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic with Yuri Falik conducting, as well as performances with the Detroit Symphony under the baton of Neeme Jarvi, the New World Symphony with Lawrence Foster conducting, and was invited to perform in recital and with orchestra at the 70th birthday celebration concert of Rostropovich in Kronberg, Germany and with Rostropovich in the Vivaldi double concerto at Reims in France.
In the summer of 1998 she appeared at the Grand Teton Music Festival in a performance of the Dvorák cello concerto with Eiji Oue and in January of 1999 she debuted with the Montreal Symphony in a performance of the Haydn C major concerto. Continuing with her great interest in America's youth in music, in March of 1999 Wendy appeared in a special concert at Symphony Hall, Boston with the Greater Boston Youth Symphony under the baton of David Commanday.
Miss Warner recently completed two full last seasons which included performances across the United States and Canada including concerts with the Colorado Symphony, the North Carolina Symphony, the Jacksonville Symphony, the Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec, the Calgary Philharmonic, the Hartford Symphony, the Nashville Symphony, the New Mexico Symphony and the Omaha Symphony.
Wendy Warner was first brought to the attention of the world stage when in 1990 she was awarded First Prize in the Fourth International Rostropovich Competition in Paris. Frans Helmerson, the distinguished Swedish cellist, was quoted in The New York Times as saying, "I'm not sure I've ever before heard a young cellist with such potential. Everything that is basic to cello playing she already has, plus a natural stage presence that you rarely find. At this age (18) she's unbelievable."
Ms. Warner made her debut with the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich in October 1990 playing the Shostakovich Concerto No. 1. Immediately following she was reengaged to appear with them on a North American tour in 1991. She was also the featured soloist on the 1991 European tour of the Bamberg Symphony, again conducted by Rostropovich, making her debuts in Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Koln, Dusseldorf and Berlin.
Ms. Warner is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and was the student of Nell Novak from age 6 until joining Mstislav Rostropovich at Curtis. An accomplished pianist as well, she has studied with Emilio del Rosario at The Music Center. In 1991, she was awarded a prestigious Avery Fischer Career grant and debuted at New York's Carnegie Hall.
With standing ovations, immediate re engagements, with the world's leading newspaper critics repeatedly inspired to make such comments as "miraculous", " flawless" and "exquisite, with full world wide concert seasons ahead, and increasing public notoriety, Wendy Warner is quite simply one of the most notable soloists on the international concert stage.