Emily Burridge virtuoso cellist, composer, arranger & cello tutor.

Emily Burridge is a virtuoso cellist, composer arranger and performer. She is also an expert teacher giving regular private lessons, one off consultation lessons and masterclasses.

Her life in music embraces many aspects of being a professional musician including composer, arranger, producer, and performer with both solo & collaborative productions, session musician – studio and on line.

In the hands of Emily, the cello becomes a voice for her personal experiences, her emotions, and her thoughts ...

Private lessons are available on Zoom April 2020
The zoom platform is actually providing a surprisingly effective way to teach at this time of Covid19 ‘lock down’ it is a practical option that can continue even when lock down ends as this Zoom is useful for avoiding a long drive and enabling international consultation lessons. Emily has already been booked to give online zoom masterclasses to a music school in Hong Kong June 2020

For your reference here is my first Zoom Testimony – (April 2020)
Emily is an inspirational, encouraging and supportive teacher. Prior to the Covid19 crisis and subsequent lock down she taught me in person and now my weekly lessons are on Zoom. She is always able to demonstrate exactly how I can improve my posture, bow hold and technique to create the best sound possible even though my playing is not yet very advanced. Emily sets me new challenges every lesson and this motivates me to perfect my technique between lessons. I have found it rewarding to have progressed so far with Emily and am confident that she will be able to encourage and guide me to realise my playing ambitions in the future.

Emily’s Musical Education
Emily received a privileged musical education. She commenced learning the cello at the age of five and when she was eleven years old she was awarded a music scholarship to Wells Cathedral School (one of the specialist music education facilities in the UK ) where she studied with Raphael Wallfisch and Margaret Moncrieff and received regular master classes with the late Amaryllis Fleming.

On leaving Wells she continued to study with Amaryllis through having gained a scholarship to The Royal College of Music, London. Following the RCM she further studied under the tutelage of the eminent teacher William Pleeth.

Zoom consultation lessons and performance preparation for ABRSM exams

Appropriate for intermediate and advanced pupils. Having listened and observed Emily generally advises on posture and prescribes studies so that they relate to the particular technical demand of the piece of music. If requested she can advise on alternate fingering and bowing.

Testimony : Consultation Cello lesson
Approach to Prelude of the G major suite by JS Bach

“As a mature student who started the cello late in life my two-hour consultation lesson with Emily was just what was needed when I started looking at the Bach suites. The Prelude of the G major Suite was proving challenging for me but with her patient help – annotating the score for easier fingering and demonstrating bowing patterns – it has made the task much more manageable” Lucy, Prelude G major suite by JS Bach

Testimony – Consultation lesson
A short account on bow hold ;

Emily has done a great job in improving my son’s cello bow hold. She is quick and accurate in diagnosing his problem, made him understand the optimum bow control by demonstrating to him the interconnectedness between the fingers and thumb as well as how best they should occupy the bow to allow the flow and flexibility. My son has also benefited from the bowing exercises Emily has prescribed which are designed to harness the concept and building up the muscles of his fingers and thumb. He has found the sessions spent with Emily both inspiring and fun. Thank you Emily!

Emily's teaching technique
Emily expertly prescribes technical studies to help in the development of the muscles in the hands and arms on route to a strong and flowing bow hold and fit left hand fingers.

In both private and consultation lessons Emily typically observes a pupils technique and quickly composes a technical passage or suggests technical studies to help in the development of technique.

Posture
Correct posture is crucial in creating a beautiful rounded tone on the cello.
Emily was fortunate to attend posture consultation lessons with the late Jean Gibson, an extraordinary individual knowledgeable in the field of the relationship between correct posture and good ability (along the lines of Alexander technique). Emily was also very lucky as her first posture consultations at the young age of eleven corrected her tense neck and shoulders and aided her playing development enormously.

IMPROVISATION As well as learning repertoire, Emily actively encourages the art of improvisation and can help a student master this technique.

From a young age, she displayed a talent for improvising as well as reading music and her ability to improvise has expanded her career as a professional cellist. Her professional website clearly demonstrates this. The art of improvisation helps an individual establish their own identification and means of expressing their emotions through the instrument.