Biography

Morwenna Del Mar is an experienced soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player. She has performed in solo or chamber concerts in the Purcell Room, St James' Church (Piccadilly, London), Leeds Town Hall, Colston Hall (Bristol), West Road Concert Hall and Kettle’s Yard (Cambridge), the Duke’s Hall (Royal Academy of Music), and as part of the St Endellion (Cornwall), Shoreham (Kent), and Norfolk & Norwich Festivals. Performances with orchestra include concertos by Schumann, Saint-Saëns and Elgar, and two performances of Tchaikovksy's Variations on a Rococo Theme (conducted by Guy Woolfenden). On her return from the United States in the summer 2009, she looks forward to performing the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Orchestra of St Paul's, Covent Garden, and a solo recital in the Budleigh Salterton Festival.

Morwenna has worked professionally with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra, was a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra, and has performed as principal cellist of the Dartington Festival and St Endellion Festival Orchestras, the Cambridge University Chamber Orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and orchestras of the Royal Academy of Music and Eastman School of Music. She has played under some of the world's most distinguished conductors including Jiří Bělohlávek, Herbert Blomstedt, Sir Colin Davis, Christoph von Dohnányi, Iván Fischer, Richard Hickox, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Simon Rattle, and Yan Pascal Tortelier, and in August 2008 she played with the London Symphony Orchestra in the BBC Proms under Valery Gergiev.

For her final year at the Royal Academy of Music she was awarded a Leverhulme Orchestral Fellowship and, following her involvement in the London Symphony Orchestra’s ‘String Experience Scheme’ she was awarded their PROMIS Award for the most outstanding string experience student, giving her further work with the orchestra and a recital for the sponsors. She is currently a member of the Eastman School's Orchestral Studies Diploma run in partnership with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, which provides her with futher professional orchestral and orchestral management experience.

Morwenna gained her postgraduate performance diploma (with Distinction and DipRAM for outstanding final recital) at the Royal Academy of Music in 2007, having graduated from Cambridge University with an Honours Degree in Music in 2005. She has received awards for solo and chamber performances, including the Royal Academy's Rhoda Butt Award, Harry Isaacs and John Ireland Prizes (as a member of the Del Mar Piano Trio), a Cambridge Instrumental Award, and one of the two English Chamber Orchestra’s inaugural Duchess of Cornwall Awards.

Morwenna is currently studying for a Masters in Music with Professor Steven Doane at the Eastman School of Music, New York, where she holds a tuition scholarship and graduate award. She is grateful for the very generous support of Richard Syred and the Richard Syred Music Bursary Fund, Churchill College, Cambridge, and also to the Dulce Haigh Marshall Trust and Dartington International Summer School for their awards and bursaries over many years.