Jamie Walton
A | EE
Biography
“This new version [Shostakovich’ 2nd Cello Concerto], I am convinced - after studying it in detail over several weeks - is, overall, the finest yet put on record. One of the more remarkable and admirable aspects of Walton’s playing is his deep and penetrating musical maturity... This issue stands alongside Walton’s earlier fine CD of Elgar and Myaskovsky concertos as outstanding examples of superb music-making.”
International Record Review: Robert Matthew Walker

Jamie Walton, the young ‘cellist, was born in Germany before moving back to the UK at an early age. Noted for his rich, powerful sound with purity of tone and emotionally engaging performances he was one of the great teacher William Pleeth’s last students who said of him: “He is a cellist of outstanding performance ability. Combining warmth of tone with a technical command that reaches dazzling proportions, he leaves little doubt as to the success that lies ahead of him - he is a musician of great integrity whose performance gives great pleasure” and has already been compared by some reviewers to great ‘cellists of past times with his distinctive sound and clean interpretations marking him out as a true individualist. Jamie plays on a Guarneri instrument dated 1712.

Jamie Walton makes his London Philharmonic debut in season ‘12/13 and has already appeared throughout much of Europe, the USA, New Zealand, Australia and the UK playing concertos, recitals and giving broadcasts in some of the world’s most eminent venues. He is as passionate about chamber music as he is with his concerto work and has performed in many of the world's great concert halls in both capacities, working and recording for many years with pianist Daniel Grimwood, leading to invitations, for example, from Lorin Maazel to play at his Chateauville Foundation in Virginia, USA, and to perform for HRH The Prince of Wales. Of their Brahms and Strauss sonatas recording, Ivan March wrote in The Gramophone: “This highly rewarding recital opens with Brahms, which the composer described as a piano/cello sonata, the two instruments being equal partners, and they certainly are here. The way in which Jamie Walton and Daniel Grimwood share the partnership is striking, with the cello and piano satisfyingly interwoven through three perfectly balanced movements... The playing [in Strauss] of Walton and Grimwood throughout is totally responsive, and again integrated with almost uncanny perfection.”

Jamie Walton’s activities as a player are accompanied by his role as Founder and Artistic Director of the North York Moors Chamber Music Festival which he started in 2009. The festival has exceeded all expectations in selling out every year and is now established as an annual event during the last two weeks of August with its artistic excellence reflected in summer 2011 when it was shortlisted by the Royal Philharmonic Society in the festival category of its ‘Concert Series and Festivals’ award. As a recording artist with Signum Records he has already recorded ten concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, the most recent being those of Dvořák and Schumann with Vladimir Ashkenazy to be released in 2012, alongside chamber music recordings with his duo partner Daniel Grimwood and he recently recorded Britten’s Solo Cello Suites near the composer’s home at Snape, Aldeburgh, for CD and will be filming them for DVD in 2012.

Jamie Walton won a scholarship to Wells Cathedral School in a period which he says remains at the soul of his music making and where his first inspirational ‘cello teacher was Margaret Moncrieff before continuing his studies with William Pleeth and, with another scholarship, at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester where he won the prestigious Pierre Fournier Prize. He is a member of the Worshipful Company of Musicians and has been elected to the Freedom of the City of London. He has also recently been awarded a Foundation Fellowship by Wells Cathedral School for his outstanding contribution to music.

2012/2013
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