"Lawrence Power is one of the leading violists of the present day, in demand worldwide as a soloist and a chamber music partner. His skill and forceful musicality are acclaimed by audiences and critics worldwide. critics. "Power is something greater: a deep musical personality, each phrase remarkable and as if new. (Sunday Times).
Through his passionate advocacy of new music, Power has expanded the repertoire for viola to include numerous works by the composers of the day. To that end, he founded the Viola Commissioning Circle, which supported his Lockdown Commissions, an artistic response to the coronavirus crisis. Power gave ten short solo works commissioned from Huw Watkins, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Cassandra Miller, and Erkki-Sven Tüür, among others. Video recordings of the works were filmed in famous concert halls closed during the Corona pandemic, or in extraordinary
UK venues and posted on social media. Lawrence Power has premiered many other works written for him, including Esa-Pekka Salonen's Pentatonic Étude, Mark Anthony Turnage's Power Play, Julian Anderson's Prayer, Alexander Goehr's Hymn to Night, James MacMillan's Viola Concerto, and Huw Watkins' Fantasy. Over the past decade, regular collaborations have developed with orchestras of the highest international standing, from the Chicago and Boston Symphony Orchestras to the Royal Concertgebouw and the
Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio. He enjoys guest appearances with play and direct programs, most recently with the Australian National Academy of Music and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra.
As a chamber musician, Power is a member of the Nash Ensemble and works regularly with musicians such as Nicholas Altstaedt, Simon Crawford-Phillips, Antti Siirala, Vilde Frang, Maxim Vengerov and Joshua Bell. Because of his thoughtful and innovative programming, Power is also invited to curate for Venues and festivals. He has been artist in residence with the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Turner Sims Southampton, and curated a concert series at London's Kings Place. He is founder and artistic director of the West Wycombe Chamber Music Festival, which celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2021. tenth anniversary. In 2020, Lawrence Power was recognized for the outstanding quality and scope of his work as a solo artist
honored with the 2020 Instrumentalist Award from the Royal Philharmonic Society. His Lockdown Commissions were nominated for South Bank Awards 2021 (classical category) nomination. Power is a lecturer at the Zurich University of the Arts and gives masterclasses worldwide, including at the Verbier Festival. He plays a rare viola by Antonio Brenzi (Bologna, ca. 1590).