Cellist Julian Lloyd Webber announced today that he has been forced to stop playing due to a herniated disc in his neck which has reduced the power in his right arm. His final performance as a cellist will be on 2 May at the Forum Theatre, Malvern with the English Chamber Orchestra.

Lloyd Webber said: “I am devastated. There were so many exciting plans that cannot now come to fruition. I have had an immensely fulfilling career and feel privileged to have worked with so many great musicians and orchestras but now I have to move on."



Lloyd Webber, 63, won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music aged 16, and completed his studies with Pierre Fournier in Geneva. He made his concert debut at the Wigmore Hall in 1971 and has performed worldwide with many leading musicians including Yehudi Menuhin, Sir Georg Solti, Sir Neville Marriner, Sir Andrew Davis, Stephane Grappelli, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic.

He has premiered over 50 works; composers including Philip Glass, Joaquin Rodrigo, Eric Whitacre, Sir Malcolm Arnold and James MacMillan have been written for him. His final two recordings - of Vivaldi Concertos for 2 Cellos with the European Union Chamber Orchestra, and English Music for Strings with the English Chamber Orchestra - will be released later this year.



Alongside his performing commitments, he has given a great deal of time and energy to music education in the UK.



"I have no intention of enduring a forced retirement," said Lloyd Webber. "I would like to use the knowledge I have gained through my life as a musician and an educator to give back as much as I can to the music profession which has given me so much over the years."

He founded the government's In Harmony (aka Sistema England) programme and, in 2003 the pressure group Music Education Consortium, that enabled £332m of government money to be ringfenced for music education.

His older brother, Andrew Lloyd Webber said: “I am devastated by [this] news. I have known of Julian's difficulties for some while and, like him, I was hoping this would not come to pass. Music has lost one of its finest performers.”

Last month, the cellist was presented with the Distinguished Musician Award 2013 by the Incorporated Society of Musicians for his services to music education.

