At 23 years of age, Danish cellist Andreas Brantelid is already one of Scandinavia's leading cellists and is quickly establishing an impressive international reputation.
When this rising star performs at the Southern Sinfonia's matinee concert, "Vive La France!" this Sunday, sitting in the audience will be one of his greatest influences, his father, who himself is one of Denmark's distinguished cellists.
When Andreas talks about his upbringing he gives the impression that in the Brantelid family the sound of the cello has been a life force as all-consuming as the air they breathe.
"My life as a cellist started when I was a baby, maybe even before I was born, one could say because my father, Ingemar Brantelid is a professional cellist in the Royal Danish Orchestra in Copenhagen, so I grew up to the sound of a cellist practising every day.
"And before long, I got so used to this sound that the only way my mother could make me stop crying, was to place me in a chair in front of my father practising.
So in that way I think I developed my ear in a very early age," he said.
"When I was six years old my father took me on a tour with a chamber music group he was playing in, called Salzburger Solisten.
I remember we went to Germany, Austria and a beautiful place in Italy, called Ravello.
And here I not only got to appreciate the concert life, but also the wonderful music.
For example works like Schönberg's Verklärte Nacht, Schubert's "Trout" Quintet and Brahms' String Sextet No 2 made quite an impression on me.
"The same year my father gave me a CD with the French cellist Maurice Gendron.
The minute I put that on for the first time I knew how I wanted to approach the cello, and I listened to it every single day for many years."
When, at the age of 14, Andreas made his solo début with the Royal Danish Orchestra in Copenhagen he says it was a little like performing with his extended family.
"When I was little I used to sit in the orchestra pit next to my dad while he was playing.
I literally grew up there."
Since that debut he has appeared as a soloist with all the major orchestras in Scandinavia.
At 19 he became the first Scandinavian to win first prize in the Eurovision Young Musicians Competition (2006) and then the Paulo International Cello Competition (2007).
He is presently a member of the BBC's New Generation Artist scheme and has joined the prestigious Lincoln Centre Chamber Music Society in New York.
For Andreas, like his father before him, the cello has become his passport to the world and in 2010 it is Andreas taking his father on a tour of New Zealand.
Last week he performed as soloist at the Auckland Philharmonia's "Echoes of War" concert.
Following that engagement he and his father hired a mobile home and have been on a leisurely drive exploring both islands on their way to Dunedin.
At the Southern Sinfonia's concert, "Vive La France!", Andreas will perform the Saint-Säens Cello Concerto No 1.
Many composers, including Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff, considered this concerto to be the greatest of all cello concertos.
The concerto was featured on Andreas' début concerto disc in 2008, which was well received.
Andreas describes the work as youthful and full of joy and inspiration.
The cello Andreas will be playing is a 1665 Andrea Guarnerius; the same cello that, until a year ago, his father had played for 30 years.
Hear him
The final concert of the Sinfonia's Matinee Series includes Poulenc's Sinfonietta, and Gounod's Symphony No 1 under the baton of the Southern Sinfonia's principal guest conductor Werner Andreas Albert.
The "Vive La France!" concert will be at the King's and Queen's Performing Arts Centre this Sunday, August 29, at 3 pm.
