Ben Finlay, 21, is an English cellist based in London, studying at the Royal Academy of Music. His playing was recently described as “totally absorbing… with an extremely secure technique and rich full tone throughout the cello’s range, there was also a lovely vocal quality to his playing.” Yorkshire Times. Since joining the Academy in 2017, Ben has enjoyed the range of opportunities on offer to him. In September 2018, he began studying Baroque Cello with Andrew Skidmore and has recently taken up composition classes with Ruth Byrchmore. Ben has also performed with the Academy Symphony Orchestra under the baton of world-famous conductors such as Marin Alsop, Robert Trevino, Edward Gardner, and Jac van Steen, performing works such Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben, Prokofiev Symphony No. 6, and Elgar’s Enigma Variations. Ben is also grateful to have received additional 1-1 tuition with internationally renowned teachers and performers including Mario Brunello and Colin Carr.
Ben first found musical success in the orchestral sphere performing with orchestras such as National Children's Orchestra, City of Leeds Youth Orchestra, Vacation Chamber Orchestras, and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. The latter led him to perform at venues such as the Barbican, Leeds Town Hall, Bridgewater Hall Manchester, Liverpool Philarmonic Hall, Birmingham Symphony Hall and a televised performance at BBC Proms under the direction of conductors such as John Wilson, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Nicholas Collon, Thomas Ades and Kristjan Jarvi.
As a soloist and chamber musician, has had the opportunity to perform at venues such as the Howard Assembly Rooms in Leeds and the Purcell Room in London, as well as 3 chamber/solo appearances at Ryedale Festival in Yorkshire. The most notable of these being a 2016 performance of James McMillan’s Kiss on Wood in Ryedale. After success in the Pendle Young Musician’s Bursary in 2018, Ben has gone on to perform an increasing number of solo engagements including a performance of the solo cello part in Karl Jenkins’ mass The Armed Man with the Keighley Vocal Union (2018) and as a part of a PYMB showcase where he performed with the Manchester Camerata. Ben has also given performances with orchestra. In May 2017, he performed the rarely heard Concerto in C Minor Op. 66 by Nikolai Myaskovsky with John Stringer and the City of Leeds Youth Orchestra, and in the summer of 2019, alongside Xenophon Kelsey and the Vacation Chamber Orchestra, he gave 5 concerts of Dvorak’s Silent Woods and “performed this gentle piece with elegance and care” Harrogate Advertiser. After the locjdown, he will perform Ligeti’s Cello Concerto with Ryan Bair and the Audentia Ensemble.
