I started doing concerts before I’d left and so had begun to build a reputation. I couldn’t see how this was going to happen and I didn’t want to stay living at home all the time. I’m a worrier. When I was in my last year at the Royal College of Music, I started becoming very worried about earning a living. We’re much more like friends and have a relationship where I think we could talk about anything, which I didn’t feel was the case with my father. In the case of my son, I tried to be very close to him, and I still am extremely close to him and, of course, my daughter. My parents influenced how I approached parenthood. I have two children, a boy who’s coming up to 30 and a nine-year-old daughter. At 9, 10 and 11 I had a thing about the London Underground where I wanted to go and visit every single station. I remember being allowed to roam around London on my own. They weren’t particularly hands on parents. He didn’t ever give any advice for the future. Looking back, particularly my father, who was a very fine musician, was quite distant. They were supportive, but it was a slightly different age. I won scholarships to both the Royal College and the Royal Academy of Music and I felt on top of the world.īoth my parents were musicians. But at that time I didn’t feel that at all. The fear was something that came to me later. For example, the nervousness of playing in public. You believe that you can do everything at that age.Īt 16 I didn’t think I had anything to worry about. The favourite time of my life was when I was 16. When I was 13 or 14 I decided I wanted to be a solo musician so I stopped doing schoolwork and would go home and just sit and practise the cello. Now, aged 70, he details in his Letter To My Younger Self how insecurity and worry drove him to success and how he fell in love with Leyton Orient. His final public performance was on at the Festival Theatre, Malvern, with the English Chamber Orchestra. In 2014, he announced his retirement from public performance after suffering a herniated disc in his neck. You may have heard of him.Īfter attending the Royal College of Music on a scholarship, he went on to have a 40-year career as Britain’s best-known cello virtuoso, playing with the world’s leading orchestras including the BRIT Award-winning Elgar concerto conducted by Yehudi Menuhin. Celebrated cellist Julian Lloyd Webber grew up in Kensington, London with a composer father, piano teacher mother and older brother, Andrew.

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