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Biography

Guy Johnston is one of the most exciting and versatile British cellists of his generation. Born into a musical family, Guy joined his brothers in the world-renowned choir of King’s College, Cambridge, where he recorded the famous carol Once in Royal David’s City under Stephen Cleobury. He went on to achieve important early successes through the BBC Young Musician of the Year title, the Guilhemina Suggia Gift, the Shell London Symphony Orchestra Gerald MacDonald Award and receiving a Classical Brit Award at the Royal Albert Hall. His mentors have included Steven Doane, Ralph Kirshbaum, Bernard Greenhouse, Steven Isserlis and David Waterman.

Latest News

Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival Launches 2023 Programme

Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival previewed by Robert Hugill

Operawire highlights Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival

Read about stringed instruments and their musicians on Country Life

"This disc is a winner" Read reviews for Guy Johnston's Tecchler's Cello

Guy Johnston: Tecchler's Cello blog for The Arts Desk

Guy Johnston's Tecchler's Cello CD OUT NOW!!

Charlotte Bray discusses her new piece 'Perseus' which has been recorded by Guy Johnston

Guy Johnston's Tecchler300 Project is on the front cover of Strings Magazine

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Guy Johnston announces the 11th Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival featuring Mark Padmore, Mishka Rushdie Momen, Julian Bliss, Kathryn Stott, JP Jofre, Morgan Szymanski and ORA Singers

Artistic Director Guy Johnston announces the 11th annual Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival, A World of Music, drawing together musicians from around the globe to the historic rooms of Hatfield House, the childhood home of Queen Elizabeth I.

The Festival features world premieres including a new Flute Quartet by Robin Holloway, and chamber works by Joseph Phibbs, Shruthi Rajasekar and Ivan Mosley in a diverse programme including contemporary chamber works from around the world that this year celebrates Gandhi Day (2 October), John Dowland’s musical connections to the House, and the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Concerts predominantly take place in the House’s striking Marble Hall, home to the famous Rainbow Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, moving to the Old Palace for the Finale Concert.

Guy Johnston reveals his new Stradivarius cello the ‘Segelman’ on loan through J & A Beare and the Beare’s International Violin Society at Hatfield House on 12 May and Wigmore Hall on 29 May

Guy Johnston reveals his new Stradivarius cello the ‘Segelman’, loaned to him by a generous anonymous donor through J & A Beare and the Beare’s International Violin Society at forthcoming showcase at Beare’s on Monday 9 May, followed by a launch of Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival on Thursday 12 May. On Sunday 29 May, Guy will give a full cello recital with Melvyn Tan at Wigmore Hall showing off the new instrument in a programme of Chopin and Mendelssohn alongside two works by Sterndale Bennett and Joseph Phibbs.

The Beare’s International Violin Society was founded in 2011 by Steven Smith, Managing Director of J&A Beare Ltd., with the aim of supporting young talented musicians through the loan of the finest stringed instruments. The Society brings together patrons who own instruments with the rising stars who play them. In the last 11 years the Society has successfully concluded just under 200 short- and long-term schemes. The partnership with Guy Johnston represents a fitting coronation of the society’s efforts, particularly as the music world comes out of a long period of challenges and uncertainties.

This is one of Antonio Stradivari’s famous violoncellos, of which there are only around 65 still in existence. It is believed that he made this cello during his golden age of violin making from 1644 -1737 in Cremona, Italy. The cello was previously owned by Gerston Segelman, a businessman who collected 37 fine Stradivari string instruments. Segelman sold this cello before he died in 1992. The cello was a part of David Josefowicz’s instrument collection at The Royal Academy of Music.

Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival unites art, history and music in the company of Lord Salisbury and family in their historic home

The 9th annual Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival will unite art, history and music in four chamber concerts to be made available as free online broadcasts this September. Filming of the concerts took place in front of a private family audience in Lord Salisbury’s historic home, Hatfield House, in late July 2020. The concerts will premiere on the Festival’s YouTube channel on Friday evenings during September.

Guy Johnston announces the 9th Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival will take place online with behind-the-scenes tours by Lord Salisbury

Artistic Director Guy Johnston announces the 9th annual Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival, with four chamber concerts to be made available as free online streams. The private concerts will be filmed in late July in the historic rooms of Hatfield House, and will premiere on the Festival’s YouTube channel on Friday evenings during September, with forewords by Lord Salisbury.

Each concert will offer a rich cultural feast with programmes augmented by exclusive interviews with artists, curators, historians, and the Salisbury family who have owned Hatfield House since 1607. While maintaining local support, filming opens the Festival up to a new audience worldwide for a truly unique experience, going behind the scenes at one of Britain’s most celebrated historic houses, the childhood home of Elizabeth I.

Cellist Guy Johnston performs at the Wigmore Hall and continues lockdown concerts in Cerne Abbas

On Wednesday 24 June, cellist Guy Johnston joins pianist Melvyn Tan for a concert from the Wigmore Hall, broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and live-streamed in HD video on the Wigmore Hall website.

Guy Johnston and Melvyn Tan begin their programme for the special lockdown concert with Beethoven’s 7 Variations on ‘Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen’, the composer’s tribute to Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. The British duo continue with Schumann’s Fantasiestücke for clarinet in their arrangement for cello, while Chopin’s Cello Sonata of 1846 is one of only nine works he wrote for instruments other than the piano.

Guy Johnston’s recording of Howells’ haunting Cello Concerto released on the King’s College Cambridge Label on 7 June

Following the posthumous premiere in 2016, cellist Guy Johnston has recorded Herbert Howells’ haunting Cello Concerto for the King’s College label for release on 7 June. The work was recorded in the resonant King’s College Chapel alongside the Britten Sinfonia conducted by Christopher Seaman.

Guy Johnston and Tom Poster release Themes and Variations on Orchid Classics

On 1 March, cellist Guy Johnston and pianist Tom Poster release Themes and Variations on Orchid Classics. Recorded in Manchester’s Stoller Hall, the disc celebrates two decades of collaboration between the pair. On 7 June, Johnston’s recording of Howells’ Cello Concerto is released with King’s College, Cambridge.

Guy Johnston to perform in 100th Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge, premiering Judith Weir’s new carol, O Mercy Divine

Internationally-renowned cellist Guy Johnston, a former chorister at King’s College, Cambridge, returns for the 100th Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s, to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and as Carols from King’s on BBC Two on 24 December, marking Stephen Cleobury’s 37th and final Christmas as Director of the world-famous choir before his retirement. Guy Johnston will give the world premiere of a new carol, O Mercy Divine, by Master of the Queen’s Music, Judith Weir. The recording will later be released on the King’s College Label.

King’s College Cambridge to release new CD with Guy Johnston

The record label of King's College, Cambridge launch a major new series of alumni recordings with an album by
cellist Guy Johnston, which celebrates the 300th anniversary of his Tecchler cello. The cello’s homecoming
to Rome in January for a recording of Respighi’s Adagio con variazioni with the Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa
Cecilia is the culmination of year-long journey from Cambridge, Hatfield House and London’s Wigmore Hall.
Also a homecoming for Guy Johnston, the project begins in Cambridge with a recording of Ola Gjeilo’s O Magnum
Mysterium with the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge. Guy Johnston's cello was broken on a trans-Atlantic flight
10 years ago, prompting a long search for a new instrument. Guy was helped to buy the 1714 David Tecchler cello by a consortium of generous patrons and the Royal Society of Musicians.