George Kennaway
George Kennaway is a cellist, conductor, teacher and musicologist who lives in Leeds, in the north of England. He is currently principal cello (no. 2) in the Orchestra of Opera North, teaches opera studies for Rose Bruford College, and an active researcher in the fields of 19th-century cello performance practice. In September 2008 he will take up the post of Research Assistant in the Leeds University School of Music, working on a new project to establish a catalogue raisonné of 19th-century performing editions of chamber music. He is also a leading British authority on the Lithuanian composer and artist M. K. Čiurlionis, on whom he has published and lectured extensively. He has given recitals and performed concertos throughout the north of England, on both modern and baroque cello. As a conductor, he has worked with orchestras in the UK, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Lithuania.
In educational work he has participated in many school workshop projects and has worked as cello coach and conductor with youth orchestras in Scotland and the north of England. He has extensive experience of teaching adult beginner string players, both as a cello teacher and as the music director of Yorkshire Late Starters Strings. He is busy as a lecturer: he gives pre-performance talks for Opera North on subjects ranging from Handel to Zemlinsky, and for the major concert halls in the north of England. He has taught also adult education courses for Manchester University, Nottingham University and for the Workers' Educational Association. He is currently researching a Ph.D. on the development of cello technique in the nineteenth century (supervised by Prof. Clive Brown), on which he gave a paper at the 2006 International Baroque Music Conference at Warsaw University. His wider interests include performance practice, reception studies, baroque music, Russian music, opera and the symbolist movement.