Rosemary Wennink

Born in 1995, Anglo-Dutch cellist Rosemary Wennink began the cello aged 7. In 2003, at the age of 8, she was accepted into the prestigious Yehudi Menuhin School of Music to study in the cello class of Professor Thomas Carroll (Yehudi Menuhin School, Royal College of Music, London). Her first concert engagement followed soon after, performing music by Ernest Bloch at the exhibition of architect Daniel Libeskind’s plans for the reconstruction of the World Trade Center Site, at the Barbican Centre in London. She made her recital debut together with pianist Maya Soltan at Saint Martin in the Fields, aged 15. She has performed as a soloist extensively in venues across London, such as the Royal Academy of Art, Saint Martin in the Fields and the Cavalry and Guards Club, in collaboration with the Royal National Ballet, as well as appearing across Europe in Frankfurt, Zurich, Stuttgart, Basel, Liestal and the South of France. She has studied under musicians such as Mstislav Rostropovich, Steven Isserlis, Frans Helmerson, Nicolas Altstaedt, Louise Hopkins, Claudio Bohorquez, Leonid Gorokhov, Robert Cohen and Colin Carr, and participated in festivals in Germany, Switzerland and France, notably the Kronberg Academy 20th Anniversary Festival, and is a regular participant at the annual Youth Classics Festival. She is currently studying in the class of Professor Rafael Rosenfeld (Solo Cellist, Tonhalle Orchestra, Zurich) at the Musik Akademie der Stadt in Basel, where she performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician. She holds particular interests in music education in South African townships, and in the freedoms of women to learn and perform music within the Islamic World, and has just launched the Afghan Concerts, a series of recitals and projects to take place over the coming year in London, Bristol, Basel and beyond, to raise money and awareness for the Afghan National Institute of Music.