Winner of the prestigious Pierre Fournier Award in 2007, Gemma Rosefield made her concerto debut at the age of sixteen when she won First Prize in the European Music for Youth Competition in Oslo, Norway, playing a televised performance of the Saint-Saens Concerto with the Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

 

Described by The Strad on her 2003 Wigmore Hall debut as ‘a mesmerising musical treasure’, by the London Evening Standard as ‘a phenomenal talent’, and featured in BBC Music Magazine as ‘one to watch’, Gemma has made her solo debut in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and in The Diligentia, The Hague, in the New Masters International Recital Series. She gave the highly successful Pierre Fournier Award recital in September 2008 at Wigmore Hall, as well as the 2008 and 2009 Jacqueline du Pré Memorial Concerts at the same venue.

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In 2011, Hyperion released a CD of Gemma playing the Complete Works for Cello and Orchestra of Sir Charles Stanford with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Andrew Manze. BBC Music Magazine considered the Stanford Concerto to be ‘superbly played’ and Gramophone Magazine commented that

Gemma ‘plays with disarming character and freshness; her technique too is enviably sure and tone beguilingly rounded’.

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Gemma plays throughout the Europe, the USA, Russia, Japan, Mexico, Kenya and New Zealand. She played Michael Ellison’s Concerto for Cello and Turkish Instruments with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, broadcast on Radio 3, performed the premiere of a new work for Cello and Choir by Cecilia McDowall at Westminster Abbey, and in August 2016 gave the UK Premiere of Concello, for Cello and Orchestra, by Maciej Zielinski at the Presteigne Festival. She was subsequently invited to perform Concello in Krakow with Sinfonietta

Cracovia, and to record it in 2019. In August 2017 Gemma performed Edward Gregson’s cello concerto ‘Concerto for Chris’, as well as giving the world premiere performance of Robert Peate’s Knuckles Arches atthe Presteigne Festival of Music and the Arts. Other recent engagements include the Dvořák Concerto with the Estonian National Orchestra and Vello Pähn. and the Elgar Cello Concerto at the Royal Festival Hall with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Christopher Warren-Green.

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Gemma gives some 50 performances a year as cellist of Ensemble 360, Royal Philharmonic Society Medal Winners, 2013, whose performances are described by the Independent as ‘brimming with body and soul, with passion, vitality and virtuosity, whose performances never cease to amaze’. As cellist of the Leonore Piano Trio with pianist Tim Horton and violinist Benjamin Nabarro, she has made several recordings for Hyperion Records. The Trio’s premiere recording of the two Piano Trios by Arensky was described by the Observer as ‘revelatory’ with ‘sumptuous breadth and beguiling warmth’. The Gramophone commented that the Trio played ‘with truly glorious affection’ and that ‘it is hard to imagine playing of a greater intensity’. This CD was BBC Radio3 disc of the week. The trio has since released a further six recordings for Hyperion, and more are to follow. In 2015 the Leonore Piano Trio embarked on a project to perform all the works by Beethoven for piano trio, violin and piano, and cello and piano, with extensive cycles in Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre, and at Kings Place, London, among other venues. At the request of the composer, the Leonore Trio recorded the complete trios by David Matthews, along with Journeying Songs for solo cello. In 2018, with violinist Benjamin Nabarro and violist Rachel Roberts, she recorded James Francis Brown’s Trio Concertante for string trio and orchestra, with Orchestra Nova conducted by George Vass. Gemma studied with David Strange at the RAM and with Ralph Kirshbaum at the RNCM. She has also studied with Johannes Goritzki, Gary Hoffman (Les Dix Stages de Perfectionnement, the Paris Conservatoire), Bernard Greenhouse and Zara Nelsova. Music written for her include works by David Matthews, Cecilia McDowall, James Francis Brown, Julian Dawes, Rhian Samuel, David Knotts and Michael Kamen.

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Gemma is a professor of cello at the Royal College of Music, London.

Her instrument is a cello made in Naples in 1704 by Alessandro Gagliano, formerly owned and played by the

Prince Regent.