Alexander Baillie is internationally recognised as one of the finest cellists of his generation. He began playing the cello at the comparatively late age of twelve having been directly inspired by the late Jacqueline du Pre'. He went on to study at London's Royal College of Music with Joan Dickson and Anna Shuttleworth and with Andre Navarra in Vienna.

Appearances with British orchestras have included the Elgar Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Litton, the Schumann Concerto with Marek Janowski and the BBC Symphony at the BBC Proms, the Walton Concerto under the late Sir Alexander Gibson with the Royal philharmonic, the Dvorak Concerto with the City of Birmingham Symphony under Sir Simon Rattle. He has also directed and performed the Haydn and Boccherini concertos with the English Chamber Orchestra.

Alexander Baillie's contribution to contemporary music has seen the Canadian Prenneres of Penderecki's 2nd Cello Concerto in 1992 and the H.K. Gruber Concerto in Winnipeg, and most recently Andrew MacDonald's new concerto (commissioned by the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra). Over the last decade he has performed six times at the BBC Proms, premiering Cohn Matthew's Concerto in 1984, in 1988 Henze's "Sieben Liebeslieder" under the composer 5 direction, in 1989 Takemitsu's "Orion and Plaiedes", the Delius and Schumann Concertos and in Beethoven's Triple Concerto.

Alexander Baillie's recent engagements have included touring the Elgar Concerto in Germany,

concerts at the Royal Palace in Oman, the premier of the concerto by Andrew MacDonald,

ShostakovichCello Concerto No2 in Boston under Benjamin Zander, and Haydn's C Major under

John Eliot Gardiner. He has also recently recorded the cello concertos by Minna Keal and Gordon

Crosse, Savonlinna and Lemmi Summer Festivals (Finland), as well as the "Forbidden City Music

Festival" in Beijing.

Alexander Baillie is a founder member of the already highly acclaimed chamber music group ALIA MUSICA in Berlin. The other members are Mi Kyung Lee violin, Brett Dean viola, Esko Lame bass and Ralf Gothoni piano. Forthcoming appearances include a debut Wigmore Hall recital and at the Berlin Festwoche in the year 2000.

Recordings include Elgar's Concerto on Conzfer, the Tippet Triple Concerto on Nimbus (with Sir

Michael Tippett conducting) and shortly to be released the World Premiere recording with the

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on Lyrita of Standford's concerto, lost since 1880. His recordings

of the Britten Cello Suites and the Sonata achieved the highest acclaim in the New York press.

Alexander Baillie was recently appointed Professor of Cello at the Bremen Hochschule and he is co-founder of "Gathering of the Clans" a part time cello school which runs holiday study camps for young cellists. He is also visiting Guest Professor at London's Royal College of Music.

Many other cellists have made a strong claim on this repertory (Britten's Suites for Cello).

Perhaps the most successful is Alexander Baillie.

New York Times