Lawrence Power

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, 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.

Only i past few years Lawrence premiere the Magnus Lindberg Viola Concerto with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, commissioned through the VCC. He also made his debut with Dresden Staatskapelle on a tour of China and return to the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks in their Musica Viva Series, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Hallé, and Frankfurt hr-Sinfonieorchester among others.

The past two seasons saw Lawrence premiere Anders Hillborg's Viola Concerto with the Swedish Radio Orchestra, Sinfonieorchester Basel and Dresden Philharmonie, and Cassandra Miller's Viola Concerto with Brussels Philharmonic and Scottish Chamber Orchestra, with critic Alex Ross heralding it a "major new work." Lawrence enjoys working with Esa-Pekka Salonen, Christian Thielemann, John Storgårds, Andrew Manze, Nicholas Collon, Ilan Volkov, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Omer Meir Wellber, among others.

As a chamber musician Lawrence regularly performs at Verbier, Salzburg, Aspen, 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 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.