Rebecca Gilliver

Principal Cello

Member since 2001, Professor at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Chair endowed by the Late Tony Welsh

‘As a very stubborn four-year-old, I heard a cello in a Dorset schools concert and left determined that that was what I was going to do. Pestering took about three years, but late one night I was called downstairs and there stood my godfather who’d bought me a cello. I had a go right away, dressed in slippers and pyjamas!’

Rebecca Gilliver studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School and Royal Northern College of Music where her teachers included Melissa Phelps, Moray Welsh and Ralph Kirshbaum. She also spent a year studying mostly contemporary music in Basel with Thomas Demenga. Originally joining the LSO as Co-Principal in 2001, Rebecca became Principal in 2009. She has played as Guest Principal with orchestras all over the world, including with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, New Sinfonietta Amsterdam and the World Orchestra for Peace.

Rebecca has played extensively as a recitalist including at the Wigmore and Carnegie Weill Hall. As a chamber musician Rebecca has played and recorded with major artists such as the Nash Ensemble and is a regular participant at the renowned IMS Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music, (playing in their Wigmore Hall concert to a socially distanced audience this October!). A professor at the Guildhall, Rebecca has also given classes at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College amongst others. She runs her own cello course, The Dorset Cello Classes, and is a regular coach at Alpinekammermusik and the Aboyne Cello Festival.