Yelian He

Hailed as a “consummate master of the bow” by The Strad magazine, cellist Yelian He is the winner of the 2009 Royal Over-Seas League String Competition in London and the Grand Prize and Audience Prize winner of the 2014 Australian Cello Awards competition in Sydney (now the Young Performer’s Awards).

He has appeared in concert at many venues and festivals around Europe, Asia and Oceania such as Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Bridgewater Concert Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre, Hamer Hall, Shanghai Concert Hall, Shanghai Grand Theatre, Oriental Arts Centre, and Forbidden City Concert Hall.

Yelian was presented to Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II in 2011 at a reception for outstanding Australians achievers in the UK and again in 2013 in a private performance for the Queen and her Commonwealth guests at Buckingham Palace.

Yelian’s nickname is the “Kung Fu Cellist”, and studies the Chinese martial art Wing Chun, made popular by Bruce Lee and the recent releases of the box office blockbuster “Ip Man” movies, with his Sifu (师傅 : a Chinese tradition and respectful title meaning teacher) in Manchester. Challenging what the recent and classic films have depicted, Yelian does not fly or has yet learned to break bricks with his head.

He is currently an adjunct professor at the United International College in Zhuhai, China, and plays on a cello made in 2018 by Yanbing Chen, as well as a cello by Hungarian luthier Adolphus Monnig made in 1877.