Biography – Katharine Ley, Cellist

British Cellist, Katharine Ley is presently finishing her undergraduate studies at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England.

Katharine is grateful to have been exposed to a rich calibre of Cello tutelage from a young age. At the age of 16, Katharine started studying privately in London with Felix Schmidt, Cello Professor of the Royal Academy of Music. This was extremely influential and progressive for Katharine’s Cello playing prior to entering music college. Following this, Katharine continued her musical studies in Manchester at the Royal Northern College of Music studying with Victoria Simonsen and Gillian Thoday.

As a soloist, Katharine has performed internationally in many concerts, public masterclasses and open 1:1 lessons in countries such as England, France, Germany, Poland, Scotland and the United States of America. Solo highlights of Katharine’s include performing the Saint Saëns Cello concerto in a public masterclass to Julian Lloyd Webber and performing the Haydn D major Cello Concerto in an open 1:1 lesson to Miklos Perenyi.

As a performing orchestral Cellist, Katharine has gained much knowledge from internationally credited orchestras. Katharine as performed in side-by-side rehearsals, projects and concerts with orchestras such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and the orchestra of Opera North. Additionally, Katharine was selected to work for the BBC Philharmonic Orchestral Management team during 2019/20 as a Royal Northern College of Music ‘Work Related Learning Student.’ Presently, Katharine is undertaking a fellowship with the San Francisco Academy Orchestra, an orchestral training programme run by musicians of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Here, Katharine gains mentorship from Amos Yang, Assistant Principal Cello of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.

During her youth, Katharine obtained extensive orchestral experience by winning numerous places in competitive-entry, national youth orchestras. These include the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, National Youth String Orchestra, National Youth Music Theatre as Principal Cellist and the National Schools Symphony Orchestra.

Katharine ambitiously strives to be one of the leading Cellists of her generation and looks forward to commencing her professional career as a Chamber musician, Orchestral Cellist and Soloist.

Katharine is grateful for past scholarships, most notably from Awards for Young Musicians UK which enabled her to study privately with Felix Schmidt in London and to the UK Government’s Music and Dance scheme which provided Katharine with her earlier tuition at the Royal Birmingham Junior Conservatoire with Elaine Ackers.

Katharine plays on a Betts School Cello (c. 1790) paired with a John Clutterbuck bow.

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