Former NZ cellist to marry Julian Lloyd Webber

Noted cellist Julian Lloyd Webber is to marry the former first cello of the Auckland Chamber Orchestra, Jiaxin Cheng. Photo / AP

Noted cellist Julian Lloyd Webber is to marry the former first cello of the Auckland Chamber Orchestra, Jiaxin Cheng, 34.

It will be the fourth marriage for Lloyd Webber, 58, and the ceremony will be at St Luke's Church in Chelsea, London, the Telegraph newspaper reported.

"We met a few years ago when we were performing in New Zealand," Lloyd Webber said.

"We came around to the idea of marriage after seeing more of each other in London. She even managed to survive a trip to see (east London soccer club) Leyton Orient play. We lost. I was plunged into despair."

Cheng graduated from Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1997, and moved to New Zealand, where she gained a masters degree in 2001. She played regularly with both the Auckland Philhamonia Orchestra and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and formed the Aroha Quartet with three other musicians from China who had settled in New Zealand.

In April last year, she performed with both Julian Lloyd Webber and his older brother Andrew, billionaire composer Baron Lloyd Webber, who will be best man at the July 4 wedding.

- NZPA