With a strong Russian streak in his playing, cellist Pablo Ferrández has performed with top orchestras around his native Spain and beyond. He was signed to the Sony Classical label and released his first album there in 2021.

Ferrández was born in Madrid on March 19, 1991. His family was musical, and he was named after the great cellist Pablo Casals. When he was 13, Ferrández entered Madrid's Reina Sofia School of Music. His teacher there, Natalia Shakhovskaya, who had been a student of Mstislav Rostropovich, left a strong imprint on Ferrández's style. Ferrández went on for further study at the Kronberg Academy outside Frankfurt, Germany, and won a scholarship from the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation. Important prizes, including a win at the Leizen International Cello Competition in Austria in 2008 and the Nicolas Firmenich Prize at Switzerland's Verbier Festival in 2011, helped launch Ferrández's career. He has appeared with such groups as the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, and the Stuttgart Philharmonic, and he has played with top-flight chamber music partners, including violinists Gidon Kremer and Vilde Frang. Ferrández is a member of Madrid's Flamel Trio. He plays a 1696 Stradivarius cello known as the "Lord Aylesford," on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation, that had been previously used by Gregor Piatigorsky and Janos Starker. Ferrández was selected for the loan in a competitive audition process judged by conductor Lorin Maazel.

Ferrández has made several recordings, including one of the Dvorák and Schumann cello concertos with the Stuttgart Philharmonic on the Onyx label in 2014. In 2016, he was featured with three other cellists on the Kremerata Baltica album Focus Cello. Signed to Sony Classical, Ferrández released the recital Reflections, accompanied by Denis Kozhukhin and featuring music by Rachmaninov and Spanish composers, in 2021. ~ James Manheim, Rovi