GROWING up in a cacophonic household where both parents and older brother were performing and composing music might seem like Julian Lloyd Webber had little choice but to enter the world of music himself.

"There was never any particular pressure to do something in music, I wanted to do it," said Lloyd Webber.

"If I didn't I think I would have gone into something to do with writing. I like working with words.

Toying with the idea of what might have been, Lloyd-Webber has been writing about the music industry in a broadsheet column.

"I just started writing a column for the Daily Telegraph. I don't think it has really been done before. I cannot think of any other performing musicians who have done this.

"There is a lot of negative stuff written about classical music. I want to tell people what is going on from inside the industry from a positive point of view."

However, Lloyd-Webber did choose the world of music and has come to be regarded as one of the most creative musicians of his generations.

He has collaborated with an extraordinary array of musicians from Yehudi Menuhin and Stephane Grappelli to Phillip Glass and Phil Collins.

To mark his 50th Birthday last year Lloyd-Webber premiered two pieces written especially for him by Glass and James MacMillan. He also appeared for the first time on stage with his brother Andrew at a birthday performance at the Royal Albert Hall and performed Elgar's Piano Concerto, a composer that holds a special place in his heart. It is fitting then that he should be appearing in this year's Bewdley Festival.

"I love the area. I look forward to playing around there. I don't live too far away, in the Cotswolds, so this is a local gig.

"Basically the programme is designed to show off the cello and what it can do. It's very varied music with some composers like Bach and Brahms while there are some pieces by contemporary composers like my father."

Lloyd-Webber has worked to highlight the work composers who have not received the recognition they derserve, such as his father, William Lloyd-Webber.

"He stopped composing in the 50s," said Lloyd Webber.

"It was a restrictive time and I believe composers should be able to write exactly what they want.

"Many composers became excluded at that time. It was not a healthy time for classic music. Particularly in cello music and I want to expand the repertoire by performing music that hasn't been played before."

In fact he has made the premiere recordings of more than 50 pieces.

"In recording a new piece I get to carve my own interpretation as opposed to something that has been recrded literally hundreds of times."

But rowing up in this cacophonic household gives Lloyd-Webber the rare insight into the works he has recorded.

"I find it comes very easily to me to interpret these pieces written by them. Particularly Andrew, I remember him composong stuff at home and I have always been there."

As well as recording new pieces Lloyd-Webber has also made an indelible imprint on one of the most important cello pieces in existence. Along with Yehudi Menuin he recorded Elgar's Piano Concerto which is considered to be the finest recording of the piece.

"That is the piece you judge a British cellist by," he said.

"You do not really change your interpretation but when you play Elgar with, say, a German Orchestra they don't know it as well as a British Orchestra.

"When I played with someone extraordinary like Menuhin who was conducted Elgar - as someone who has always loved Elgar and wanted to bombard him with questions - it was one of the greatest experiences of my life."

n Julian Lloyd Webber Cellist in Concert is part of Bewdley Festival.