NICOLA LISLE talks to the celebrated cellist Natalie Clein as she prepares for a concert at the Sheldonian Theatre

By chance rather than design, Natalie Clein's appearance at the Sheldonian Theatre next week comes just four days after her birthday. And it's a special one this year - her 30th, no less. When I spoke to her recently she was a little coy about this milestone, but it was obvious that being in Oxford shortly after the occasion was going to be a treat for her.

"Oxford is a great place, one of my favourite cities anywhere," she said. "It's a great venue for me. I play there every year at the Oxford Chamber Music Festival, so it's always a thrill to come back and play there. And the Sheldonian is so steeped in history, it's got a spirit all of its own."

Natalie may have only just reached the end of her third decade, but she is something of a veteran on the professional music scene. She began playing the cello at the age of seven, and only three years later made her platform debut with members of her family in a recital that she describes as "sort of semi-professional".

But it was as a 16-year-old that she burst to prominence, when she won the BBC Young Musician of the Year award, after stunning the judges with an outstanding performance of Elgar's Cello Concerto. The same year, she also won the top award in the Eurovision Competition for Young Musicians in Warsaw - the first Briton to achieve this feat.

Other outstanding prizes have included the Ingrid zu Solms Cultur Preis at the Kronberg Academie in 2003 and the Classical Brit Award for Young Artist of the Year in 2005.

Unsurprisingly, these awards have opened numerous doors for her. She made her Proms debut as a 20-year-old, playing Haydn's Cello Concerto in C Major with Sir Roger Norrington and the National Youth Chamber Orchestra of Great Britain. Solo engagements with many of the UK's top orchestras swiftly followed, including the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the Hallé, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the BBC orchestras, under the baton of conductors such as Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Neville Marriner and Paul Daniel.

International engagements have included recitals in Tokyo, New York, Vienna and Salzburg, and her passion for chamber music has taken her to many of the most prestigious summer festivals, including Mostly Mozart, Cheltenham, Bath and, of course, Oxford, as well as many abroad.

Yet, despite all of this, Natalie remains refreshingly modest about her achievements.

"I come from a musical family and there was always music in my house," she reflects. "So it was really inevitable that I was going to play an instrument."

Natalie's early influences were Anna Shuttleworth and Alexander Baillie, her teachers at the Royal College of Music, where she studied after winning a Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Scholarship. She has since studied in Vienna with Heinrich Schiff, whom she describes as "an incredibly inspiring, and a wonderful teacher".

These days, Natalie's influences come from a wide range of likely and unlikely sources.

"I just pick up inspiration from all around me, from lots of writers, from musicians of all kinds, including pop musicians - just anybody who's doing something that has integrity really."

Integrity is something that Natalie herself has by the bucketload. She regularly attracts praise from the critics for her informed and committed interpretations. So how does she approach a new piece of music and interpret it for her audiences?

"After you've learnt the notes you have to really understand what's behind those notes," she explained. "So you have to understand the time in which it was written and you have to understand the language of the composer. It's almost like getting to know the composer as a person, so that they become a friend in a way, and you're trying to understand exactly what they're trying to say."

Next week, Natalie will be joined by the European Chamber Orchestra in a performance of Haydn's Cello Concerto No.2 in D Major.

"It's a beautiful piece, with beautiful melodies, and it's very virtuosic for the cellist," she said. "So it's a great challenge."

The programme also includes Haydn's Symphony No.64 and Mozart's Divertimento in F and Symphony No.29.

Soon after this concert, Natalie will be in the recording studio, putting her unique interpretation of the Elgar Cello Concerto on to disc.

"That should be released in the autumn. So that's great - for me, that's a big deal.

"Then I just keep going with my normal concerts. What's really important to me is to branch out in some way, to bring my passion for what I do to new audiences - to younger audiences, a lot of the time. I'm constantly finding new ways of doing that and it's something I'm passionate about."

Natalie Clein will be appearing at the Sheldonian Theatre on Thursday with the European Union Chamber. For tickets, call 0870 7500659 or visit www.musicatoxford.com For more information about Natalie Clein, visit her website www.natalieclein.com