ONE of the world’s most celebrated cellists, Raphael Wallfisch will headline an eclectic repertoire of string solo and orchestral music at Leeds’ dedicated recital hall, The Venue, on Friday February 12 and Skipton’s newly renovated Town Hall on Saturday, February 13.

Wallfisch is no stranger to his fans in Ilkley, having played Finzi Cello Concerto at the Kings Hall in 2015.

The concert on February 12 aptly entitled On the Shoulders of Giants will showcase a dichotomy of music from 18th century Austria and 20th century Russia, with Wallfisch as the soloist in Shostakovich’s powerful First Cello Concerto, influenced by Prokofiev and the Soviet regime of the early twentieth century.

Raphael Wallfisch has enjoyed a distinguished international career playing with such orchestras as the London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, English Chamber Orchestra, Hallé, City of Birmingham Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus and Berlin Symphony to name but a few.

Another brilliant talent, and former student of the Yehudi Menuhin School near London, is 12-year-old Ilkley girl Alexandra Keeley dubbed a ‘child prodigy’ by ITV, who will be playing The ‘Adélaïde’ Concerto, which is attributed to a young Mozart.

Wallfisch and Keeley will be accompanied by the highly applauded Yorkshire based orchestra, Skipton Building Society Camerata. They will be conducted by their founder and artistic director, Ben Crick, who is a former student of The University of Leeds and The Royal Northern College of Music, and most notably a former BBC Music Fellow. Crick has conducted with numerous professional ensembles, performing in venues such as Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall and the Royal Festival Hall.

Ben Crick said: “Raphael Wallfisch is one of the most astonishingly brilliant cellists currently performing on the international stage. It’s an absolute honour for both myself and the Camerata to be invited to accompany him again, particularly as this fantastic concert will be on our home turf.”

The Camerata will also play The Adagio and Fugue by Mozart, which is Mozart’s masterful homage to past masters Handel and Bach, whose music he discovered only late in his short life. Final pieces include Haydn’s Palindrome Symphony, which is so named because of its ingenious reversible minuet; and Prokofiev’s ‘Classical’ Symphony, which he described as the sort of piece Mozart or Haydn might have written had those composers lived a century or more later.

For tickets and further information visit; skiptoncamerata.com or telephone Leeds College of Music on 0113 2223434 for tickets for the Leeds concert, and 0333 666 3366 for tickets for the Skipton concert.