Berlin-based, French-born, multi-faceted musician Vladimir Waltham is equally at home on cello, Baroque cello, and all sizes of da gamba instruments. Praised for his “luminous tone” by Gramophone, Vladimir is passionate about sharing the broadest possible musical palette, in repertoire spanning from the Middle Ages to collaborations with composers and world premieres as well as everything in between.
Vladimir divides his time between his Linos Piano Trio, his work as principal cello of La Serenissima, and his freelance performing and recording activities. The season 2020-21 sees him returning to London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and Helsinki’s Musiikkitalo, as well as appearing in many other venues and festivals in France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and the UK.
The Linos Piano Trio’s recently published recording of the Complete Piano Trios of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach has been garnering critical acclaim, qualified as “beautiful and poised” (Rondo Magazin), or noting “virtuosity, presence of mind and wit” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) and “lively performances which are sensible to the myriad nuances of this composer’s idiom” (BBC Music Magazine). Vladimir’s contribution to La Serenissima’s CD Vivaldi x2 was singled out in glowing terms by Gramophone: “[a] soloist to whom I could listen all day, cellist Vladimir Waltham; hear his gently grainy, luminous tone and his sighing trills, and fall in love.”
Vladimir started learning the cello in his native France, moving to the UK at the age of 16 to study first at the Yehudi Menuhin School, then at the Guildhall. In 2012, he was selected by the Jumpstart Jr. Foundation to receive the loan of a beautiful baroque cello, 2015 saw him take First Prize and the Audience Prize with his Linos Piano Trio at the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, and in 2016 he was awarded Third Prize at the International Bach Competition Leipzig on baroque cello.
When not busy traveling and performing, you can find Vladimir at home enjoying his love of cooking and of coffee or taking his family on a hike in the mountains.