Laura van der Heijden

Laura van der Heijden is recognised as one of the leading cellists of her generation. Recipient of the 2025 Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist Award, she continues to captivate audiences and critics alike with her deeply perceptive interpretations and engaging, imaginative programming.

Opening the 2025/26 season as Artist in Residence at Scotland’s Lammermuir Festival, Laura goes on to appear in concerto performances with the Ulster Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Philharmonie Zuidnederland, and the Pilsen Philharmonic, as well as leading a play/direct project with Sinfonia Cymru. She also features as the soloist in Manchester Collective’s newly commissioned Papillons project, touring across the UK with its world premiere at the Southbank Centre’s Multitudes Festival. Her chamber music highlights this season include performances at Wigmore Hall, Saffron Hall, and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw with the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective; recording sessions and a performance in Ronnie Scott’s inaugural classical series with Her Ensemble; and a series of UK recitals with pianist Jâms Coleman.

Since winning BBC Young Musician in 2012 aged 15, Laura has built a thriving and varied international career, working with distinguished conductors including the late Sir Andrew Davis, Alpesh Chauhan, Nick Collon, Richard Egarr, Gemma New, and Karl-Heinz Steffens. Increasingly recognised as a prominent voice in the classical music world, she has appeared on Jess Gillam’s This Classical Life podcast, Tom Service’s Saturday Morning show on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Music Magazine’s All the Right Notes podcast and was featured on the cover of The Strad (June 2024).

Recent concerto highlights include performances with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic, CBSO, Aurora Orchestra, and Scottish Chamber Orchestra, as well as a play/direct programme with Britten Sinfonia. She has been Artist in Focus at King’s Place and collaborated with the BBC Symphony Orchestra on their George Walker Total Immersion project. Recent recitals and chamber appearances have included performances at the Cello Biënnale Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall, Helsinki’s Sérios Festival, Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal, Cheltenham Music Festival, and Bad Kissingen Summer Festival.

A committed advocate for new music, Laura has premiered works by composers including Lara Weaver and Gavin Higgins and most notably gave the world premiere of Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s Earth, Sea, Air in 2023 with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, reprising it at the 2024 BBC Proms with conductor Ryan Wigglesworth. A Chandos artist, her latest release features the premiere recording of this work alongside Bridge’s Oration and Walton’s Cello Concerto.

Laura’s 2018 debut album 1948 won the Edison Klassiek Award and the BBC Music Magazine Newcomer of the Year Award. Her discography on Chandos has since flourished: Pohádka (2022), her first album with pianist Jâms Coleman, featuring works by Janáček and Dvořák, was met with critical acclaim; this was followed by Mozart – Piano Quartets (2023) with Francesca Dego, Timothy Ridout and Federico Colli; and Path to the Moon (2024) with Jâms Coleman, inspired by William T. Horton’s evocative image of the same name. She also features on all of Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective recordings for Chandos, including Hahn’s Piano Quintet and Songs, Brahms and Contemporaries (Volumes I, II & III), Transfigured (works by Schoenberg, A. Mahler, Webern and Zemlinsky), and Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn – Chamber Works.

A sought-after chamber musician, Laura is a member of the critically acclaimed Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective (Wigmore Hall’s Associate Ensemble), performing a wide range of repertoire internationally with recent UK and US tours. She also collaborates regularly with celebrated musicians including Timothy Ridout, Max Baillie, Misha Mullov-Abbado, Hélène Clément, the Doric Quartet, the Redon Quartet, and the Brodsky Quartet.

A graduate of Cambridge University and Hanns Eisler Berlin, Laura studied with renowned tutors including Antje Weithaas and Leonid Gorokhov. She performs on a late seventeenth-century cello by Francesco Ruggieri of Cremona, generously on loan from a private collection.

Artist Website: www.lauravanderheijden.org

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