Top: Julian Lloyd Webber performs at the closing ceremony of London's Olympic Games. Jewel Samad / Agence France-Presse Above: Music has brought Lloyd Webber and his wife Cheng Jiaxin together. Provided to China Daily

Julian Lloyd Webber is known as the 'doyen of British cellists'. He also has a close connection with China - he is married to Shanghai cellist Cheng Jiaxin. He shares his life story with Chen Nan.

At the closing ceremony of London's Olympic Games, cellist Julian Lloyd Webber performed his signature Elgar's Salute d'Amour with the London Symphony Orchestra, alongside rock legends like Queen and The Who, in front of more than a billion people.

He rehearsed just three days before the show and when he eventually played on stage, he says he was overwhelmed by the atmosphere and the theme of peace brought by the Games.

"Though I've gotten used to playing at all kinds of venues, this is different," he says. "It's all about peace, just to show how music can be and how music brings people together."

"There is no barrier, just music," he adds.

At 60, the renowned British cellist still has a busy schedule touring around the world and exploring music's infinite possibilities.

On top of his agenda are the upcoming performances with National Youth Orchestra of Iraq at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on Aug 26, and at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London on Aug 28.

He also continues to lead "In Harmony Sistema England", the English community program inspired by Venezuela's hugely successful El Sistema, a music project in schools where professional musicians help children achieve their musical potential.

The musician's life is also as romantic and colorful as his exquisite music pulse.

He says his wife, Shanghai-born cellist Cheng Jiaxin, 37, whom he met in 2000, inspires him. "Music has certainly brought us together. It's the ultimate food of love."

Lloyd Webber had been married before, and thus, he was very careful about marriage. But the couple's romantic attachment made them believe that it will work.

On the day of the wedding in 2009, the couple recall, the sun suddenly came out one hour before the ceremony after raining the whole morning. The rest of the day was clear.

"It was a wonderful day and the marriage actually made us grow stronger together," Lloyd Webber says.

The couple played together for the first time at Vivaldi's Concerto for Two Cellos in G Minor in Birmingham on March 27, 2012. "It was an extraordinary and wonderful feeling to be sharing our music and our love story with a capacity audience," the cellist recalls.

The couple have also recorded two CDs and have plans for more recordings and concerts together. They are also founding members of the Chinese British Musicians Society.

They have been married for almost three years now and have a 9-month-old daughter, Jasmine Orienta. The name bears special meaning: Jasmine is a shared Western and Eastern name, while Orienta is an improvisation of the word Orient. Lloyd Webber has been a lifelong supporter of the East London football team Leyton Orient.

The marriage, which is the cellist's fourth, has changed him in some ways.

"I have one son from a previous marriage. Because I was away on tour so often, I was not able to spend much time with him. Right now I am still constantly touring but there will come a time when I am able to spend more time with our lovely daughter," he says.

The couple were born into families of musicians. Lloyd Webber's father was a composer and his mother was a specialist piano teacher to very young children. Cheng's father is a classical guitarist, who quit learning the instrument due to the "cultural revolution" (1966-76).

Cheng who started learning cello at 6, received a full scholarship from Auckland University to do her master's degree after playing in the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra for three years.

Having listened to Lloyd Webber's music since a very young age, Cheng says: "We have different styles of playing but we agree on our approach to music which we believe must come from the heart."

For Lloyd Webber, despite growing up with music, he was never pressured to have a music career. "I could either take it or leave it - and I took it," he says. The first piece he played at a concert was Tarantella by Squire, when he was 9 and his father accompanied him on the piano.

He says his father was always supportive in a "hands-off" kind of way and his brother, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, was quite fascinated by his progress.

He only explored the idea of becoming a professional cellist when he was about 13 years old, after his wonderful teacher in London prompted him, and also because he saw the great Russian cellist Rostropovich play in London.

His early influences were Rostropovich, Shostakovich, and Edward Elgar, who all shared one thing - they are musicians with a huge desire to share their music with people. "That is what I have always wanted to do," he says.

He performed the Elgar concerto at the changeover concert in Hong Kong in 1997. Since then, he has visited China frequently.

"I have enjoyed every visit to China. I compare the feeling in Shanghai now to when I first visited New York in the 1970's," he says. "Music is the true international language. It knows no barriers of any kind."

Contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn.

(China Daily 08/15/2012 page20)