Keiran Campbell

Keiran Campbell Described as “a delightful performer… playing with the ease of a pub fiddler,” (The WholeNote) and “an active, sparkling participant in the musical conversation” (Toronto Star), Keiran Campbell is a highly sought-after baroque cellist based in Toronto, Canada, where he is co-principal cello of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra.  

Keiran has appeared with groups including The English Concert, NYBI, Philharmonia Baroque, The Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Four Nations Ensemble, Mercury Chamber Orchestra, Arion Orchestre Baroque, and Les Violons du Roy.  He recently performed with Le Concert Des Nations under Jordi Savall, touring Europe performing Beethoven Symphonies before recording them on Savall’s new Beethoven CD. During his summers, Keiran has performed with Teatro Nuovo, Lakes Area Music Festival, and The Carmel Bach Festival. He is also on faculty at Chamber Music Collective, a festival that focuses primarily on post-1750 performance practice.  Recent performance highlights include concerto appearances with Tafelmusik, Mercury Chamber Orchestra, and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, a concert of Monteverdi Madrigals with Jordi Savall and Le Concert des Nations in Carnegie Hall, a solo recital with fortepianist Sezi Seskir at the Berkeley Early Music festival, a summer residency at the Salzburger Festspiele as principal cello with Utopia Orchestra under Teodor Currentzis, and performances of Handel’s Saul and Solomon with English Concert at the BBC Proms and Edinburgh Festival.

In demand as a teacher, Keiran has given masterclasses and lessons at Duke University, UNC-Chapel Hill, Bucknell University, Penn State, Tafelmusik Winter and Summer Institutes, Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, and The Royal Conservatory in Glasgow.  He began his own studies at age 8 in Greensboro, North Carolina, after stumbling across a cello in his grandmother’s basement.  Upon completing extensive studies with Leonid Zilper, former solo cellist of the Bolshoi Ballet, he received his Bachelors and Masters at the Juilliard School, working with Darrett Adkins, Timothy Eddy, and Phoebe Carrai.  Keiran also spent several springs in Cornwall, England, studying closely with Steven Isserlis and Ralph Kirshbaum at Prussia Cove. 

Keiran plays on a cello by Timothy Johnson and a 1770s bow attributed to the Dodd family, which was purchased in part thanks to a grant from the Ontario Arts Council. Keiran is also fascinated with instrument making, which he studies with the maker of his cello, Timothy Johnson.