Nia Harries Cello

Nia
Harries,
cellist

Nia was a pupil of Jacqueline du Pré for over six years. She went on to study with Steven Isserlis, who revolutionised both her attitude to music and her playing. Her performing career on both modern and baroque cello has taken her all over the world – including the Arctic Circle, New York and performances throughout Europe. Her chamber music concerts at the Wigmore Hall include performances with the Songmakers’ Almanac, the Goldberg Ensemble, and Y Cerddorion, and in 1994 she gave her debut recital there.

In 1996, Alun Hoddinott wrote his third cello recital for Nia, funded by the Arts Council of Wales: she gave the world premiere in St David’s Hall, Cardiff, and the London premiere in the Wigmore Hall the following year. Alun Hoddinott also composed his third piano trio for Nia’s chamber group, the premiere of which was given at the Fishguard Festival followed by a second performance at the North Wales Music Festival.

In addition to a commitment to living composers, she has also built up a reputation as a period performer, having appeared with many of the most highly respected ensembles for early music, in several countries and countless venues. Her last appearance in the City Music Society concert series/City of London Festival was as part of period trio Concerto Cristofori in an all-Mozart programme, and she will be playing there again in March 2008 in a recital for cello and harp.

In 1998 she gave her first Purcell Room recital as part of the Fresh Young Artists Concert Series.

She taught for several years at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama on the String Training Programme, and she is increasingly sought out as a teacher. She has given masterclasses in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Recent engagements include recitals around the British Isles, including a world premiere at Wexford, Ireland. In addition to working with harpist Claire Jones, artists with whom she is collaborating include pianist Iwan Llewelyn Jones and soprano Patricia Rozario.

What the critics have said:
On equally fine form was cellist Nia Harries in her Purcell Room recital with Pamela Lidiard (3 November). Opening with a nicely understated reading of Mendelssohn’s Variations Concertantes, Harries achieved real character and delicacy in its lyrical yet wistful phrases... Hoddinott’s Cello Sonata No.3, a work written for Harries and Lidiard, is thoroughly compelling for its quirky and inventive character as well as the precision of its textures. I’d enjoyed hearing Harries play it once before and liked it even better on this second performance: Harries claimed its idiosyncrasies as her own, from the jazzy pizzicato of the opening to the rapturous dancing rhythms of the final Allegro. It was followed by a colourful reading of a favourite of Hoddinott’s, Debussy Cello Sonata; here, Harries’ clear melancholy tone and air of anxiety perfectly captured the work’s subtitle ‘Pierrot angry with the moon’. Great sensitivity was shown by both players in Beethoven’s Sonata in A major Op. 69. Lovely and spirited, the Allegro ma non tanto and Allegro molto gave way to the aching simplicity of the Adagio cantabile, while in the final Allegro vivace Harries’ featherlight scampering was superbly matched by Lidiard’s nimble fingered virtuosity. As an encore Mendelssohn’s Song Without Words showed the duo at its best, Harries’ honeyed lyricism complemented by Lidiard’s clarity of texture. The Strad

The projection of the music, and the sheer quality and beauty of the sound all made for performances of real depth and assurance...superb performance of my sonata – this gave me genuine pleasure and delight. Alun Hoddinott

I have always been impressed by he seriousness of her dedication to the music she plays. She is a truly sensitive musician, who thinks deeply about the works she interprets; she also has an impressive technique, a real feeling for beauty of sound, and a personality that should appeal strongly to audiences. Steven Isserlis.

Harries’s interpretative flair ...became evident with a lithe, airy performance of Beethoven’s Judas Maccabaeus, pianist Pamela Lidiard giving inspired support. Hoddinott’s Sonata No.3, commissioned by Harries...is wonderfully inventive, its five movements discrete in terms of character yet united by the thread of Hoddinott’s’ intricate textures. Harries was compelling , her wistfulness in the bleak second movement, Andante, as gripping as the joie de vivre with which both players danced their way through the final Allegro. Grief’s Sonata Op.36 was thoroughly appealing, Harries revelling in a languorous vibrato and mellow tone. The Strad

Rhosygilwyn Mansion was the setting for a remarkable concert last Saturday evening.Virtuoso compositions are so often mere vehicles for technical display, but that could not have been said of Benjamin Britten’s Sonata in C.... Certainly, there was plenty of technical display from both performers, neither of whom gave any hint that the formidable technical difficulties posed any problems whatsoever. Britten’s imaginative writing was realised with conviction. The opening movement, Dialogo which can unravel too easily, was a delight as motifs flicked back and forth between the two instruments. Nia Harries’s sweet, limpid tone caressed the Elegia, while the Moto perpetuo with its overtones of Bartók, was despatched with some ferocity and panache, Pamela Lidiard’s crisp technique contributing greatly. ...This was a remarkable evening of quality music-making by two accomplished musicians. Western Telegraph







Contact: Lucien Jenkins, 55 Melrose Avenue, London NW2 4LH, lucien.jenkins@btinternet.com 020 8452 3805