A RISING star of the cello, 16 year-old Hugo Svedberg, joins the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra on Thursday 13th November, at Exeter University Great Hall, for a concert entitled Sunshine and Shade. He will be playing one of Tchaikovsky’s best-loved pieces, the Variations on a Rococo Theme, a work characterised by carefree charm, grace and the indomitable spirit of his idol, Mozart, filtered through his Russian and Romantic sensibilities.

The concert, conducted by David Hill, also includes Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, Faure’s Pelleas et Melisande Suite, and Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony (No 4).

Still in his teens, Hugo Svedberg won first prize in the national Pole Star Prize for Swedish young musicians in 2024. In the same year he appeared on BBC Young Musician. He began playing the cello aged six and studies with Adrian Brendel. He has been a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and has won several competitions, including the Two Moors Festival Competition and the Bromsgrove Young Musicians Senior Platform.

He is a music and academic scholar at Canford School in Dorset. In his free time he enjoys playing tennis and paddleboarding. Hugo plays a fine Tecchler cello on loan from a generous sponsor through the Beare’s International Violin Society.

Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin is perhaps one of his most personal creations and is a memorial to the fallen in the First World War, including his friends and brothers. Profoundly moving, this is a work infused with love and devotion for lost loved ones.