Adrian Brendel

His nursery was a music room—the room in which his father, Alfred Brendel, practiced the piano when he was home in London, and the son listened with keen eagerness to learn. Ultimately, Adrian Brendel decided on the cello and has made a name for himself as a performing artist who also supports new concert formats and unconventional programming concepts. His teachers have included Alexander Baillie, Miklos Perenyi and William Pleeth, but also Györgi Kurtág, who further deepened Brendel’s affinity for contemporary music. In addition to performing as a solo cellist, Adrian Brendel is also devoted to chamber music—such as performing as a trio with Andrej Bielow and Kit Armstrong. His close musical relationship with Alfred Brendel is documented by the notable recording of Beethoven’s complete music for cello and piano, with the A major sonata named the top recommendation by the ‘Building a Library’ program on BBC Radio 3. In 1995 Brendel founded the ‘Music at Plush’ chamber music festival in Dorset, of which he is the Artistic Director.