Viola

Internationally-acclaimed viola player Lawrence Power is widely heralded for his richness of sound, technical mastery and his passionate advocacy for new music. Lawrence has advanced the cause of the viola both through the excellence of his performances, whether in recitals, chamber music or concertos and the creation of the Viola Commissioning Circle (VCC), which has led to a substantial body of fresh repertoire for the instrument by today’s finest composers. Lawrence has premiered concertos by leading composers such as James MacMillan, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Julian Anderson, Alexander Goer, and through the VCC has commissioned works by Anders Hillborg, Thomas Adès, Gerald Barry, Cassandra Miller and Magnus Lindberg.

Lawrence devised his critically acclaimed Lockdown Commissions project as an artistic response to the coronavirus crisis, filmed in and around empty performing venues with specially commissioned works by Huw Watkins, Garth Knox, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Cassandra Miller, Martyn Brabbins, William Marsey and Thomas Larcher. Following on from the success of these short films, Lawrence founded the production company Âme with film maker Jessie Rodger, to produce films that explore the boundaries between music and other art forms. Lawrence and Jessie presented Fathom, a boundary-pushing concert experience at the Southbank Centre in December 2022 performing a unique selection of old and new music fusing live performance, cinematic projection and intricate, 360-degree sound design.

The 2023/24 season will see Lawrence premiere the Magnus Lindberg Viola Concerto with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, commissioned through the VCC. He will return to Hallé, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and Frankfurt hr-Sinfonieorchester following a debut with Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. The past two seasons saw Lawrence premiere Anders Hillborg Viola Concerto with the Swedish Radio Orchestra, Sinfonieorchester Basel and Dresden Philharmonie, and Cassandra Miller Viola Concerto with Brussels Philharmonic and Scottish Chamber Orchestra, with critic Alex Ross heralding it a ‘major new work’.

Over the past decade, Lawrence has become a regular guest performer with orchestras of the highest calibre, from Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Stockholm, Bergen and Warsaw Philharmonic orchestras to the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, BBC Symphony, Philharmonia, BBC Scottish Symphony and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic orchestras, with conductors such as such as Osmo Vänska, Lahav Shani, Parvo Järvi, Vladimir Jurowski, Andrew Manze, Edward Gardner, Nick Collon, Ilan Volkov and Esa-Pekka Salonen. He is familiar to audiences around the UK and has made 12 BBC Proms appearances, with the James MacMillan Viola Concerto, Walton Viola Concerto and Mark-Anthony Turnage On Opened Ground among other works.

Lawrence enjoys play-directing orchestras from both violin and viola, most recently at the Edinburgh International Festival with Scottish Ensemble, Australian National Academy of Music and with Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and leads his own orchestra, Collegium, made up of fine young musicians from across Europe. He is on the faculty at Zurich’s Hochschule der Kunst and gives masterclasses around the world, including at the Verbier Festival. With his intelligent approach to programming, Lawrence is often invited to work with venues and festivals as curator. He has enjoyed residencies at Turner Sims Southampton and with Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, served as Artist in Residence with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and curated a concert series at Kings Place. He is founder and Artistic Director of West Wycombe Chamber Music Festival, which celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2021.

As a chamber musician he is in much demand and regularly performs at Verbier, Salzburg, Aspen, Oslo and other festivals with artists such as Steven Isserlis, Nicholas Alstaedt, Simon Crawford-Phillips, Vilde Frang, Maxim Vengerov and Joshua Bell. Lawrence was announced in 2021 as an Associate Artist at the Wigmore Hall, a position lasting for five years, with artists performing at least once each season.

Lawrence plays a viola made in Bologna in 1590 by Antonio Brenzi and also a Brothers Amati viola from 1580 on loan from the Karolina Blaberg Stifftung.

Photo credit: Giorgia Bertazzi