Biographies, photos and rider

Maren Ashby is a British cellist based in Bath. She grew up in Pembrokeshire, began the cello at seven, and studied at the Royal Northern College of Music with Hannah Roberts before a postgraduate year in Cologne. As a soloist and chamber musician she has performed at Wigmore Hall, St John’s Smith Square, Kings Place, the Bath Mozartfest and the Two Moors Festival, and toured the Netherlands and Norway with the Avon Chamber Players. Critics have praised her “dark, singing tone” (Gramophone) and “quiet authority” (The Strad). Her recordings for Seren Records include Low Light (2026), Songs Without Words (2023) and the complete Bach suites (2021). New works have been written for her by Sarah Pyne, Tom Alder and Ilse Marr. Away from the concert platform she leads The Ashby Strings, a duo, trio and quartet that plays at weddings and private events across the South West, and teaches a small class of cellists of all ages. She plays a cello made by Charles Harris in London in 1830.