Described by the Times as ‘mesmerising’ and ‘soaringly passionate’, British cellist Natalie Clein has built a distinguished career, regularly performing at major venues and with orchestras worldwide. In 2021, Natalie was awarded an OBE for her services to music.

She records regularly for Hyperion and has received a Diapason d’Or, Gramophone disc of the month and a Brit award for past recordings. In 2024 she will feature on a disc of Brian Elias’s works for strings, playing L’Innominata which was written for her. 

She is regularly invited to work with major orchestras worldwide including Philharmonia, Hallé, Bournemouth Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Orchestre National de Lyon, New Zealand Symphony, Opole Philharmonic, St Petersburg Symphony, and Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires and has performed with conductors including Sir Mark Elder, Sir Roger Norrington, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Leonard Slatkin, Heinrich Schiff and Daniel Harding . 

Major engagements in recent seasons have included recital tours of Australia, North and South America and Ireland. In January 2024 she premiered a new concerto written for her by Deidre Gribbin with the Ulster Orchestra and David Brophy, and later in that season performed with the BBC singers in a performance of Tavener’s Svyati. 

In recital she appears frequently with artists including Marianna Shirinyan, Cedric Pescia, Christian Ihle Hadland, Einav Yarden , Nurit Stark and Anthony Marwood . She has also worked with Martha Argerich, Ian Bostridge, Simon Keenlyside, Imogen Cooper, Lars Vogt, Isabelle Faust, leif Ove Andsnes and Yeol Eum Son.

She has a regular partnership with the singer Ruby Hughes and Julius Drake; ‘Tre Voce’ and will appear with them in the 24/25 Southbank chamber music series at the QEH. Other upcoming highlights is a recital in the chamber music series at the Wigmore Hall, the complete Bach Suites in the newly formed Wigmore series in Dublin , further recitals and concertos in Denmark, Switzerland , Italy , Germany and the UK . 

She has also been involved in cross-disciplinary projects with the dancer Carlos Acosta, writer Jeanette Winterson and director Deborah Warner amongst others.

She is the Artistic Director of the Purbeck International Chamber Music Festival, Dorset, and has curated series for BBC Radio 3 and King’s Place’s.  Since 2019, she has been Professor of Cello at the Rostock Academy of Music in Germany. She is also a visiting Professor of Cello at the Royal College of Music and appears in masterclasses and juries worldwide including Queen Elisabeth competition in Brussels and the ARD in Munich. 

Born in the United Kingdom, Natalie came to widespread attention when she won both the BBC Young Musician of the Year and the Eurovision Competition for Young Musicians in Warsaw- the only ever British winner.

She studied with Heinrich Schiff in Vienna and plays the ‘Simpson’ Guadagnini cello of 1777.