Wendy Warner, hailed by Strings magazine for her “youthful, surging playing, natural stage presence and almost frightening technique,” has become one of the world’s leading cellists. Since she first garnered international attention by winning first-prize at the Fourth International Rostropovich Competition in Paris in 1990, audiences have watched Warner perform on prestigious stages including New York’s Carnegie Hall, Symphony Hall in Boston, Walt Disney Hall in Los Angles, Paris’ Salle Pleyel and Berlin’s Philharmonie.

Warner has collaborated with such leading conductors as Mstislav Rostropovich, Vladimir Spivakov, Christoph Eschenbach, Andre Previn, Jesús López-Cobos, Joel Smirnoff, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Charles Dutoit, Eiji Oue, Neeme Järvi and Michael Tilson Thomas. She has recently performed with the Santa Barbara, Detroit, Colorado and New World Symphonies; the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec and the Calgary Philharmonic.

Additional North American engagements have included the Chicago, Boston, Dallas, North Carolina, Jacksonville, Montreal, New Mexico, Omaha, Nashville and San Francisco Symphonies, and the Minnesota and Philadelphia Orchestras. Around the world she has performed with the London Symphony (Barbican Center), Berlin Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, French Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Iceland Symphony, L’Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, and L’Orchestre de Paris, with which she performed the Brahms Double Concerto with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, Semyon Bychkov conducting.

Highlights from the 2008-2009 season brought Warner to South Africa, debuting with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and a world premiere of a Beethoven Trio in Chicago with violinist Sang Mee Lee and pianist George Lepauw. Her concerto appearances this season include the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Cape Cod Symphony, Evanston Symphony, Valdosta Symphony (GA) and the Santa Fe Concert Association performing the Barber Concerto with members of the New Mexico and Santa Fe symphonies.

A passionate chamber musician, Warner has collaborated with the Vermeer and Fine Arts Quartets and esteemed violinist Gidon Kremer. Recital work includes performances at the Music Institute of Chicago’s Nichols Hall, the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and internationally in Milan and Tokyo. Warner was invited to perform in recital and with orchestra at the 70th birthday celebration concert for Mstislav Rostropovich in Kronberg, Germany and with Rostropovich in Vivaldi’s two-cello concerto in Reims, France. Festival highlights include performances with El Paso Pro-Musica, Grand Teton Music Festival and Penderecki’s Beethoven Easter Festival in Krakow.

Warner’s musical career began at age six under the tutelage of Nell Novak, until she joined Mstislav Rostropovich at the Curtis Institute from which she graduated. Warner made her New York debut with the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich in October 1990, playing Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto. She was immediately reengaged to appear with the NSO on a North American tour in 1991. She was also the featured soloist on the Bamberg Symphony’s 1991 European tour, again, conducted by Rostropovich, making her debuts in Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Köln, Düsseldorf and Berlin. From there, she debuted in important music halls all over the world, as well as with the European Soloists of Luxembourg at Frankfurt’s Alter Oper, and the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine. She has toured Japan as soloist with NHK Symphony Orchestra and Japan Philharmonic.

In 2009-2010 Wendy Warner will be releasing three more cds for Cedille: Popper and Piatigorsky, Rachmaninov and Myaskovsky Sonatas as well as a cd devoted to unknown Beethoven piano trios including a world premiere. Her past recordings include Hindemith’s complete chamber works for cello for Bridge Records and a disc of 20th century violin and cello duos with Rachel Barton Pine for Cedille Records. Warner’s critically acclaimed CD of Samuel Barber’s Cello Concerto, with Marin Alsop and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, was released by Naxos.

A recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, Warner teaches at Roosevelt University and resides in Chicago.

The outstanding cello bow being used by Wendy Warner is by Francoix Xavier Tourte of Paris, c. 1815, the “De Lamare” on extended loan through the generous efforts of the Stradivari Society of Chicago. The Stradivari Society is a unique organization that supports the very highest level of string playing by assisting Patrons who own the most precious antique Italian instruments and French bows and choose to make them available to artists of exceptional talent and ability.