Neil Heyde

As a soloist and chamber musician Neil Heyde has appeared throughout Europe, and in China, the USA and Australia, broadcasting for the BBC, WDR, ORF, Radio France, RAI, NRK, DR, Netherlands Radio and many other networks. An Australian, he moved to London in the 1980s to study with William Pleeth and it has been the perfect place to make musical connections and build relationships.

He combines life as cellist of the Kreutzer Quartet with his role as Head of Postgraduate Programmes at the Royal Academy of Music, where his work focuses on relationships between performers and composers – past and present. His discography extends to more than 40 recordings, including film and solo work but mostly with the quartet. His research and writing stems directly from his life as a practising musician.

New music is central to his work, and while he has commissioned and premiered many solo and chamber pieces, he is also dedicated to performing and recording neglected areas of the repertoire. Important projects have been Ferneyhough’s Time and Motion Study II for solo cello and electronics (1973-76) and with the Kreutzer Quartet, the complete quartets of Michael Finnissy (Metier MSV92011) and Roberto Gerhard (Metier MSV92032) – both premiere recordings. As a musicologist he has edited Faber’s series of 19th century music for stringed instruments and piano, and prepared an analytical study of Debussy’s sonatas.