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.