James Kreiling
Music is who I am, it is everything I live and breathe. On this site I wish to share thoughts, performances, and insights, exploring what it means to be an artist, to create and to share. On the blog you will find my own musings, ranging from detailed articles on music and performance, thoughts on more contemporary culture, and explorations on the myriad of connections between seemingly disparate art forms. My regular monthly feature ‘Ask the Artist’ explores the people behind the artwork, in which I share thoughts from composers, performers, dancers, actors, painters, photographers, pretty much anyone in the creative arts, on why they do what they do.

I think sometimes my parents wonder where my musical talent came from. No one else in my immediately family are musicians, but my grandmother played the piano, and it is to her that I owe my initial love of the instrument. Just as importantly, I grew up surrounded by music, on record, on tape, and later CD. As a baby my parents would play me Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony at bedtime, ever hopeful that I would be asleep by the storm… As a toddler I would frequently ask my parents to put on music, early favourites were Queen’s Greatest Hits and The Moody Blues.

My first musical love is the music of Alexander Scriabin and his vision of an artwork which would draw upon all artistic disciplines, act on all the senses, and in which the audience themselves would be an integral part has greatly influenced my interest in cross-arts and cross-genre collaboration. I consider growing up in an environment surrounded by music ranging from the classical masters, to heavy metal, jazz, and prog rock hugely fortunate and significant. My every day listening ranges from Mingus to Mahler, to Bob Dylan to Bach, and much more besides. It is this love of musical diversity that has led to where I am now artistically: co-founder of Multiphonic Arts, a small organisation that presents performances which encompass a wide range of musical genres, as well as drama, dance, poetry, and painting.

Liubov Ulybysheva
was born in Moscow and started playing the cello at the age of five. Having studied at the Gnessin Special Music School and the Russian Music Academy, she came to London in 2003 to continue her studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Oleg Kogan and the Royal Academy of Music with Felix Schmidt, winning the Mir Carnegie Prize for cello upon graduating.

Liubov became the only cellist to win a prestigious scholarship from the Paganini International Competition in Moscow, funded by the Investment Programme Foundation. She was also featured in Reader’s Digest magazine as one of the young stars of the Russian Hope feature.

In 2006 she won the First Prize at the Tunbridge Wells International Young Concert Artist Competition, followed by winning the MBF Music Education Award, the Muriel Taylor Young gifted Cellist Award, the Hattori Foundation, the Jellinek and the Kenneth Loveland awards. Liubov was also a recipient of the Meyer Foundation Award and the English Speaking Union Scholarship.

Liubov later became a member of the Razumovsky Academy and made her solo debut at Wigmore Hall as part of the Razumovsky Young Artists Recital Series in 2008. The same year she started teaching at the Razumovsky Academy herself.

As a concerto soloist, Liubov has performed in Russia, the UK, and Europe with the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Russian State Symphony Orchestra Young Russia, and more.

Liubov is also a keen chamber musician and regularly performs in the UK and abroad. She has participated in numerous music festivals such as the Manchester Cello Festival, Alderburgh Festival, Valdres and Lidkoping Music Festivals. She has played with, amongst others, Dora Schwarzberg, the Mozart Piano Trio and the Razumovsky Ensemble.

She has performed live on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio Ulster and Classic FM. In 2018 Liubov joined the Royal Opera House orchestra and in the same year she released her debut recording, From the Shadow of the Great War, featuring works for cello and piano by English composers.

In 2019, Liubov became an artistic manager of the Brundibar Arts Festival, which aims to bring little-known music written during the Holocaust to the general public.