John-Henry Crawford

Louisiana-born cellist John-Henry Crawford has been lauded for his “polished charisma” and “singing sound” (Philadelphia Inquirer). In 2019, he won First Prize at the IX International Carlos Prieto Cello Competition and was named Young Artist of the Year by the Classical Recording Foundation. In 2021 he was named the National Federation of Music Clubs’ 2021-2023 Young Artist in Strings and in 2023 made his Carnegie Hall debut as recipient of the American Recital Debut Award.

 

His albums have accrued over 3 million streams. Corazón: The Music of Latin America reached #5 on the Billboard Classical Charts and was selected as Editor’s choice in Gramophone Magazine. Crawford’s debut album Dialogo as well as his Voice of Rachmaninoff also appeared on the Billboard Top 10 Classical chart. In June 2024 he released his concerto debut album featuring concerti by Dvořák and Tchaikovsky with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and Martin West.

 

Crawford has given concerts in 25 states as well as Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Mexico, Switzerland and the Philippines at venues such as Paris’ Auditorium du Louvre and Dresden’s Volkswagen’s Die Gläsern Manufaktur. He gave his concerto debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra as First Prize Winner of the orchestra’s Greenfield Competition.

 

Crawford is from a musical family and performs on a rare Homolka cello smuggled out of Austria by his grandfather, Robert Popper, who evaded Kristallnacht and a bow by Tourte ‘L’Aîné’ from 1790. In addition to music, he enjoys learning languages, performing magic tricks, and photography.