Barbara Grunthal takes a bow!

Manchester Camerata Cellist Barbara Grunthal is profiled in the Jewish Chrronicle Online.

“When the conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier re-routed his bouquet to “the sweet cellist at the back” he was paying tribute to an obvious, but rarely acknowledged, truth. Accolades are gifted to conductors and soloists, but their performances can only succeed with the individual and collective efforts of the musicians in the orchestra.

Cellist Barbara Grunthal, 48, is one of those unsung heroes. As a much sought-after freelance player on Manchester’s vibrant classical music scene she performs for the Manchester Camerata, a thriving chamber orchestra of which she is a member, as well as for the renowned Hallé Orchestra, the Northern Chamber Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic.

Currently, music-lovers are descending on the city’s Bridgewater Hall for sell-out performances of the complete cycle of Mahler’s symphonies, marking the 150th anniversary of the Jewish-born composer’s birth. The Hallé is collaborating with the Manchester-based BBC Philharmonic and the Camerata in this massive enterprise.

“It’s a thrill playing with the big orchestras,” she says. “Being in the middle of the sound of the horns and the brass in Mahler… it’s such powerful, evocative music.”

To read the rest of the Jewish Chronicle Online article by Gita Conn click here