Artists

Cellist and viol player Samuel Ng frequently works with ensembles including Academy of Ancient Music, Dunedin Consort, La Serenissima, The English Concert and Arcangelo. Samuel is a core member of two emerging ensembles: Liturina, who were Philip and Dorothy Green Young Artists and released their debut album of Bach trio sonatas paired with jazz compositions by Jonny Mansfield, and Republic of Viols. Samuel currently teaches at the Royal College of Music Junior Department.

What made you choose the cello?

I was lucky to go to a primary school in London where there was a fantastic music service and my first cello teacher, Janet, was doing a classroom demonstration of the cello. I was sold after she did harmonic glissandi with her other students.

How did you get into Historical Performance Practice / Early Music?

As a teenager, I had an obsession with old recordings of 20th-century violinists and cellists like Christian Ferras, Zara Nelsova and Daniil Shafran. Besides their interpretations, I was most captured by their personal sounds. My teacher at the Junior Academy was Heather Harrison and she allowed me to experiment with set-ups and I remember turning up to a lesson with gut strings trying to play the Walton Cello Concerto. She was a bit too nice to me with how I sounded. Moving forward, when I was an older student at Junior Academy, I was put in a project with Laurence Cummings and we played some concerti grossi. I absolutely loved it! It was only natural that I ended up doing a joint principal course at the RCM with the baroque cello and modern cello!