El internacionalmente aclamado viola Lawrence Power es ampliamente reconocido por su riqueza sonora, su dominio técnico y su apasionada defensa de la nueva música. Lawrence ha promovido la causa de la viola tanto a través de la excelencia de sus interpretaciones, ya sea en recitales, música de cámara o conciertos, como de la creación del Viola Commissioning Circle (VCC), que ha dado lugar a un importante corpus de nuevo repertorio para este instrumento por parte de los mejores compositores actuales. Lawrence ha estrenado conciertos de destacados compositores como James MacMillan, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Julian Anderson y Alexander Goer, y a través del VCC ha encargado obras a Anders Hillborg, Thomas Adès, Gerald Barry, Cassandra Miller y Magnus Lindberg.
En la temporada 2024/25 Lawrence es Artista Residente en el Southbank Centre, comenzando con un recital con Thomas Adès con obras de Adès, Britten, Dowland, Stravinsky y Berio, donde se les unirá un percusionista y el bailarín y coreógrafo de renombre internacional Jonathan Goddard. Otras actuaciones incluyen el estreno en el Reino Unido del Concierto para viola de Magnus Lindberg con la Philharmonia Orchestra dirigida por Esa-Pekka Salonen, un «Lock-in» con actuaciones en directo y proyecciones cinematográficas y un nuevo proyecto encargado al estudio creativo Âme. En el resto de la temporada, Lawrence estrenará en Alemania, Estados Unidos y Austria el Concierto para viola de Lindberg con la NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester y Alan Gilbert, la Sinfónica de San Luis y Hannu Lintu y la Orquesta del Mozarteum de Salzburgo y Aivis Greters. Otros hitos incluyen la Konzerthausorchester de Berlín con Ivan Fischer, la Orchestre National de Belgique y Antony Hermus y el regreso a la Orquesta de Cámara Escocesa para estrenar en Escocia del Concierto para viola de Anders Hillborg, dirigido por Andrew Manze.
Durante la última década, Lawrence se ha convertido en un invitado habitual de orquestas del más alto nivel, desde la Sinfónica de Chicago, Sinfónica de Boston, Royal Concertgebouw, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Filarmónicas de Estocolmo, Bergen y Varsovia hasta la Orquesta de Cámara de Europa, BBC Symphony, Philharmonia, BBC Scottish Symphony y Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, con directores como Osmo Vänska, Lahav Shani, Parvo Järvi, Vladimir Jurowski, Andrew Manze, Edward Gardner, Nicholas Collon, Ilan Volkov y Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Lawrence disfruta dirigiendo orquestas tanto de violín como de viola, más recientemente en el Festival Internacional de Edimburgo con el Scottish Ensemble, en la Academia Nacional de Música de Australia y con la Orquesta de Cámara de Noruega, y dirige su propia orquesta, Collegium, formada por excelentes jóvenes músicos de toda Europa. Es profesor en la Hochschule der Kunst de Zúrich e imparte clases magistrales en todo el mundo, incluido el Festival de Verbier.
Es un solicitado músico de cámara y actúa regularmente en Verbier, Salzburgo, Aspen, Oslo y otros festivales junto con artistas como Steven Isserlis, Nicolas Altstaedt, Simon Crawford-Phillips, Vilde Frang, Maxim Vengerov y Joshua Bell. En 2021, Lawrence fue nombrado Artista Asociado en el Wigmore Hall, un puesto de cinco años de duración, con artistas que actúan al menos una vez cada temporada.
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 is Resident Artist at the Southbank Centre in 2024/25, which commences with a recital with Thomas Adès featuring works by Adès, Britten, Dowland, Stravinsky and Berio where they will be joined by a percussionist and internationally renowned dancer and choreographer Jonathan Goddard. Further performances include the UK Premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s Viola Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, a ‘Lock-in’ featuring live performance and cinematic projection and a newly commissioned project from creative studio Âme.
Elsewhere in the season, Lawrence will give the German, US and Austrian premiere of the Lindberg Viola Concerto with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester (Alan Gilbert), St Louis Symphony (Hannu Lintu) and Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg (Aivis Greters). Further highlights include the Konzerthausorchester Berlin (Ivan Fisher), Orchestre National de Belgique (Antony Hermus) and a return to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra for the Scottish premiere of Anders Hillborg’s Viola Concerto conducted by Andrew Manze.
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, Nicholas Collon, Ilan Volkov and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
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.
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.
Royal Albert Hall
September 2024
An utter marvel from the man who put the viola back on the map, plus the best of September’s classical concerts
Lawrence Power, with Thomas Adès at the piano, transported us to far away with a sensational set including Purcell, Britten and Stravinsky
Classical concerts are usually sober, sit-up-straight affairs, with just enough light in the darkened hall to peer at the programme note and keep track of what you’re actually listening to. Mental focus is the key.
However these days the immersive phantasmagoria is becoming increasingly popular. The lights are totally dimmed so that you can’t check the programme notes. And so one piece follows another in a stream of consciousness, uninterrupted by vulgar applause, with everything blending into an overall “mood”.
Speaking as one who much prefers lucidity to dreaminess, this new trend for “curated” concerts can be quite annoying. But last night’s example of the genre, given as part of the Southbank’s terrific opening weekend festival of classical music, was an utter marvel. In the pool of light on stage surrounded by inky blackness were just two musicians: Lawrence Power, the musician who’s put the mournful viola back in the spotlight; and Thomas Adès, the fabulously gifted composer, pianist and conductor, who accompanied Power at the piano.
28 September 2024
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Cassandra Miller Viola Concerto
Royal Albert Hall
August 2024
“The concerto [which] unfolded with sublime assurance and a transcendental gentleness by the superb soloist Lawrence Power and the BBC Philharmonic directed by John Storgards, made such a beguiling impact on the ear and so direct an appeal to the emotions that it almost rendered intellectual analysis unnecessary. Almost, but not quite. The entire piece sounds like a solo improvisation over a drone. But it’s far more subtle than that. The soloist proceeds by microtone slithers, melodramatic vibratos that quiver into full-blown trills, and raw octaves that evoke some ancestral Balkan folk lament. Meanwhile, the orchestra refines that drone in a thousand different ways, sometimes making it sound like the far-off swell of the ocean, at other times shooting dazzling flecks of woodwind through the texture or, just before the end, accompanying the viola with strummed pizzicatos in what sounds like, but probably isn’t, a nod towards Elgar’s Violin Concerto. It’s a work that deserves many performances."
The Times 01 August 2024
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Lawrence Power and Simon Crawford-Phillips
Wigmore Hall
May 2023
“His programming is so imaginative and his musicianship so independent of his instrument that it’s the message, not the medium, that is paramount
The Strad 19 July 2023
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Anders Hillborg Viola Concerto
Dresden Philharmonie
Jun 2023
“While Ligeti offered all the atmospheres between calm and excitement, Anders Hillborg's Concerto for viola and orchestra, premiered in 2021, was clearly hooked on excitement. The "concerto" turned out to be a mad, twenty-minute Étude for the soloist. With Lawrence Power, however, it's not just the name that says it all, he's also a shaper - something he's already proven several times at the Moritzburg Festival. Technically mastering the piece was not in the foreground, but rather its swaying and wandering. With many glissandi, the composer ensured a constant transformation, set accents with sharp Bartók pizzicati in the double basses, alienated the sound so that the violins in the harmonics seemed to imitate the screeching of passing seagulls. The "range of sounds" alone, however, does not make a work - when something new is presented in such an exciting way as in the partnership Power - Philharmonie, one can be amazed!
Neue (musikalische) Blätter 21 June 2023
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Anders Hillborg Viola Concerto
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra
May 2023
“The British violist begins alone and creates a noble sound. He elicits nuances from his instrument that can never be heard in the orchestra. Hillborg's powerful, contrasting new creation blossoms. An exciting experience.
Frankfurter Neue Presse 13 May 2023
Power's viola playing was far removed from the cliché of a somewhat sedate basic character of his instrument, pushing forward aggressively even at the uncompromising opening and never coming to rest for more than 20 minutes in a supreme demonstration of virtuosity. The soloist's baroque encore, Johann Paul von Westhoff's "Imitatio ne della campagne", was all the more spherical.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 15 May 2023
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Cassandra Miller Viola Concerto
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
May 2023
★★★★ Eking its way out of the silence, Power’s viola produced tremulous textures, delicately shaped, that used microtones and glissandi to plumb emotional depths. It’s a stroke of genius to do this on the viola.
The Times 06 May 2023
★★★★ Power seized on that equivocation brilliantly, his limitless and penetrating tonal vocabulary, even in the viola’s topmost reaches, a constant source of vibrant impetus. It was a mesmerising performance of a valuable new addition to the viola repertory.
The Scotsman 08 May 2023
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Anders Hillborg Viola Concerto
Sinfonieorchester Basel
Apr 2023
With the "Concerto for Viola and Orchestra (2021)" by Anders Hillborg, Lawrence Power is able to demonstrate and enjoy all the tonal and technical facets that a viola has to offer. The wild character traits of this instrument, which otherwise acts rather discreetly as a connecting link between the violins and the bass instruments, also come to the fore and are consciously perceived by the audience thanks to the technically brilliant and emotionally differentiated performance by the violist.
Online Merker 20 April 2023
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Cassandra Miller Viola Concerto
Brussels Philharmonic
Mar 2023
Lawrence Power gives a staggering account of the solo part, with Ilan Volkov and the Brussels Philharmonic providing vehement support
New Yorker 17 April 2023
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MacMillan Viola Concerto
BBC Philharmonic
Jul 2022
Power, who plays an Italian instrument from 1610, achieves an expressive range of limitless variety, from muscular to lyrical to ethereal. His encore, the Imitations of Bells from Johann Paul von Westhoff’s Sonata No 3 in D minor (50 minutes in on BBC Sounds), turned the viola into a shimmering carillon.
The Guardian 23 July 2022