George Kennaway
George Kennaway is a cellist, conductor, teacher and musicologist who lives in Leeds, in the north of England. After many years as principal cello (no. 2) in the Orchestra of Opera North, he has recently taken 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 recently submitted his PhD thesis on 19th-century cello performance practice. He also teaches opera studies for Rose Bruford College. He is 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 coached 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 recently presented 'The Broken Melody', a radio programme about the cellist Auguste van Biene for BBC Radio 4. . His wider interests include performance practice, reception studies, baroque music, Russian music, opera and the symbolist movement.