Adrian Bradbury

Cellist Adrian Bradbury has released several albums devoted to the obscure 19th century cellist and educator Alfredo Piatti. He is also active as a chamber player with many leading British ensembles and is a prominent orchestral cellist with a substantial list of guest principal appearances. Bradbury has a strong commitment to contemporary music and has participated in the world premieres of works by Thomas Adès, Judith Bingham, and other top British composers. He is also a musicological researcher who has investigated the phenomenon of ensemble synchronization. Bradbury released the album The Pre-Raphaelite Cello in 2024. Bradbury took up the cello at age seven. He was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain for five years. For a time, he was undecided between music and a career as a veterinarian, impelled toward the latter field by the popular writings of James Herriot. He studied both subjects at Churchill College, Cambridge, but music won out, partly because of Bradbury's fascination with a broadcast of Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 in E major that he heard on the radio. Bradbury has credited teachers Lilly Phillps and David Strange, as well as local youth orchestra conductor Mark Gooding, as primary inspirations. Bradbury traveled to Berlin, Germany, for further studies, and he went on to appear with chamber ensembles both within and beyond Britain. He has been a member of the Composers Ensemble, the Touchwood Piano Quartet, Trio Gemelli, and Chamber Domaine, among other groups. Bradbury has had a long career as a session cellist in popular music. An early recording to feature him, perhaps his debut, was Tina Turner's What's Love Got to Do with It (1990). His classical debut was the 2004 crossover album Premiere by soprano Katherine Jenkins. Bradbury appeared on several film soundtracks, including How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) and 2016's Kung Fu Panda 3. With Chamber Domaine, he has appeared on several albums, including 2018's Rakastava: The Music of Jean Sibelius. In 2019, Bradbury released his debut as a featured artist, Alfredo Piatti: The Operatic Fantasies, Vol. 1. Bradbury has performed in world premieres of works by Adès, Bingham, James MacMillan, Guy Barker, and various other composers. Well-respected as an orchestral player, he has performed as a guest principal with the BBC Symphony, the English National Opera, and the London Symphony Orchestra, among other groups. In 2020, Bradbury released a second album of Piatti's operatic fantasies, and after several more pop releases (Bastille's Roots of ReOrchestrated, 2021) and film soundtracks (No Time to Die, also 2021), Bradbury and pianist Andrew West issued the recital album The Pre-Raphaelite Cello on the Somm label in 2024. Bradbury has retained ties to the National Youth Orchestra, serving there as a cello tutor. ~ James Manheim, Rovi