Leeds Castle says cello to Julian Lloyd Webber

As famous in classical music circles as his brother Andrew on the West End stage, Julian Lloyd Webber is one of the world's leading cellists.

For this reason, and many more, classical and cello fans will not want to miss the maestro performing a one-off, intimate recital at Leeds Castle.

"People appreciate seeing a performer very close," said Julian on the merits of a small venue. "You can never get as close as you can at a place like Leeds Castle."

He added: "I often think this sort of music was not intended to be played in the Albert Hall, in fact, it definitely wasn't. So it's nice to have a mix of venues." Renowned for his love of new music and experimenting with the cello, Julian will be premiering a new piece by composer Patrick Hawes, specially commissioned for the Kent concert.

"I've always wanted to do new music as far as the cello as an instrument is concerned," said Julian. "I've always wanted to expand the repertoire through good pieces which aren't so well known or by finding new pieces."

He'll be performing the classics too, of course. A range of material to "show off what the cello can do - pieces he's famed for such as Saint Saens' The Swan and Bach's Adagio in G.

Ahead of our interview, I found out another of Julian's famous works, Variations (also known as the South Bank Show theme tune), inspired a friend of mine to take up cello.

Learning this led me to wonder if there was a similar experience which inspired Julian to take up the instrument too.

"Yes, there was," he said clearly thrilled to have had such an influence on my friend. "This is a very important point and is one of the things which quite concerns me. You don't see enough classical music on TV for example, so it's hard.

"Young people do need role models and mine was the great Russian cellist Rostropovich, who was an extraordinary performer. "When I was 13, I saw him a great many times in London. He came over and did a huge series of concerts and I went to every single one. I was just bowled over. You do need that. That was my inspiration and it's very nice to hear I was your friend's. That's brilliant."

Rostropovich was not the only one, of course. "It was a noisy place to grow up in, I tell you," said Julian of the Lloyd Webber household . "My parents were always musical and both involved with music so there was always music in the background. Andrew and me were not under any kind of pressure to go in any direction. I think that's why we found where we wanted to be. We could take it or leave it and we both happened to take it."

Julian continued: "It's extraordinary when I work with Andrew because we really don't have to talk much at all about the music, it just sort of happens. We both shared that background and I haven't worked with him that much, but it really is pleasurable when I do."

Julian hinted earlier about his concern about how little young people are exposed to classical. It's an issue he has devoted much effort into rectifying and his latest contribution to this cause is chairing In Harmony, a £9m government initiative to offer music training and free instruments to children living in deprived areas of Britain.

In Harmony is modelled on El Sistema, a hugely successful Venezuelan project which, since its beginnings in the 1970s, is credited with boosting the country's orchestra count from two to 110 and nurturing hotly-tipped musicians such as conductor Gustavo Dudamel. "It's early days," said Julian. "We don't know where these pilot projects are going to be yet. "

There's going to be an advertisement placed at the beginning of September, when the project is officially open to tender.

"There's almost certainly going to be three pilot schemes in different parts of the country, targeted on the poorest, most deprived areas. It's going to be fascinating; I'm very excited to be involved with it because it's a project very dear to my heart.

"It's approaching music education from a completely different direction in this company to how it's ever been approached before. That's what intrigues me and excited me about it, we really are in unchartered territory here."

Would you say it's a big project, Julian?

"Well it's big in terms of money," he said. "In that each project, over the three years, will get £3m. That's a lot of money. It's a £9m project.

"What we have to ensure is it continues beyond that time and we have to demonstrate that it's been successful, particularly in social terms. We have to show that it's been successful in bringing communities together and helping some people who come from very poor backgrounds."

No stranger to these sort of initiatives, Julian is well-known for his dedication to music education. But what is it which drives him to devote so much time to these causes?

"I feel I've had a very good career in music," he said. "I've really enjoyed what I've done, I love the music itself and I felt it was time for me to put something back and be involved more with the educational side of music because I know from first-hand experience what music can do for people. I've seen it. I feel there are problems; we all know there are problems in some areas with the young people in this country, in particularly the socially deprived groups.

"And classical music, the Symphony Orchestra particularly, is a way that's has been proved to show it can be a way out of that."

He is, of course talking about El Sistema.

"It is absolutely amazing, miraculous," he said of In Harmony's Venezuelan counterpart. "It won't have the same here because it's a different country but it could have just as miraculous an effect.

"The interesting thing about this project is we're going to children as young as three so they have no preconceived notions about the music at all. And that's what's exciting. They haven't been told anything and I think that's important."

"We missed a generation really of music education, in schools it was allowed to go out of the system and it's very hard to bring something back when its gone.

"So we're basically trying to bring it back in a variety of forms and this is the one that I'm particularly involved with."

Talking of trying to get young people back into classic, I wonder what Julian makes of the classical surge where popular acts have been bringing classical into their music and vice versa.

"I don't like the term crossover, I think it's very meaningless. In many ways I'm quite a musical purist. I started a bassa nova band for example, and we absolutely played in that style, there was no classical element about it.

"When it goes wrong or it doesn't work very well is when you try to blend the styles but I do think there's too much emphasis on it. Music is jjust to be enjoyed, I don't think we should be so worried about it all."

He concluded: "I'm really looking forward to this concert, I know it's quite a big local event so it's going to be exciting, especially doing a new piece."

Julian Lloyd Webber recital for Arts at the Castle, Leeds Castle, Maidstone. August 5 at 8pm. £75. 01622 880008.