Lavinnia Rae
Nelson born cellist Lavinnia Rae has resided in London for the last six years, following her undergraduate studies at the Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music with Inbal Megiddo and Andrew Joyce, and at the Waikato Conservatorium of Music with James Tennant. In London she studied with Richard Lester at the Royal College of Music, where she completed a Master of Performance with Distinction. As a Leverhulme Arts Scholar she completed a MPerf with Distinction in Orchestral Artistry in association with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, under the tutelage of LSO principal cellist Rebecca Gilliver.
Since her graduation, in 2023 she was on trial for tutti cello with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and regularly freelances with the LSO, and Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra. She has recorded sessions in the LSO for the Dallas String Quartet’s ROMANI: The Untold Story album at the Abbey Road Studios, Genshin Impact’s music video for the release of Chapter 5, Sir Simon Rattle’s How to Build an Orchestra, as well as film sessions with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Lavinnia has performed under the baton of many world-renowned conductors in the U.K. including Sir Simon Rattle, Gianandrea Noseda, François-Xavier Roth, Klaus Mäkelä, Thomas Adès, and Michael Tilson Thomas. Additionally, she was accepted into the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra touring Germany for two months, and performed as principal cellist for one programme featuring Steven Isserlis and Veronika Eberle performing the Brahms Double Concerto in A minor Op. 102.
Lavinnia was recently on contract for eight weeks with the NZSO as guest section cello, and she enjoyed performing with the orchestra again that inspired her to pursue a professional music career. This year she is appearing as acting principal cello of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra for several programmes, and has previously freelanced with the Auckland Philharmonia, and Orchestra Wellington.
Chamber music highlights for Lavinnia include attending the Hellensmusic Festival in Herefordshire performing alongside incredible professionals, Tom Poster, Maya Iwabuchi, and Lawrence Power. This included private mentorship with Bruno Delepelaire, principal cellist of the Berliner Philharmoniker. Another highlight was the three week intensive String Quartet Seminar mentored by the Takács Quartet at the Music Academy of the West in California. During her studies at the GSMD and RCM, she was the cellist in the Tasman Trio with New Zealand colleague Siyu Sun, and regularly performed in Duo Fantaisie with pianist duo partner Iain Clarke. In 2018 her string quartet at the NZSM was selected as the New Zealand String Quartet’s Troubadours Quartet, and they are featured on the Salvation Army’s Offering album.
In New Zealand, a major career highlight for her was performing as soloist in the Michael Fowler Centre, Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with the combined New Zealand School of Music and Wellington Youth Orchestras, after she won first prize at the NZSM Concerto Competition in 2016.
