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He credits his subsequent success to EALOVEGA BEN his Guildhall teacher, Mark Knight. ‘I was really very lucky. He taught me how to play properly and I knew very early on that it was what I wanted to do,’ Power explains. ‘Mark was always very supportive and always said it was important to make himself “as useless as possible as soon as possible”. He was very good at teaching the nitty-gritty and letting people go on to find their own way. Some teachers hold on to their pupils for far too long.’ Power later studied at Juilliard in New York with Karen Tuttle, who was a student of the great violist William Primrose and who has developed a ‘coordination’ technique to playing the viola, which Lawrence Power with Leopold String Trio colleagues Kate Gould (centre) and Isabelle van Keulen (right) combines good physical health with musical expression and technique. ‘She is great musicians on a daily basis has ‘Hyperion showed a real leap of faith obviously a wonderful link to Primrose,’ had a profound influence on him. in letting me do the York Bowen and Power explains, ‘but what I got most from ‘It’s a real cliché,’ he says, ‘but you the Forsyth,’ says Power. ‘Bowen’s music her was her amazing way of playing and can really hear when a soloist has played seemed to fall out of favour and was relaxing at the same time. She had an in an ensemble. A player around whom overshadowed by his more forward-looking emphasis on always being in touch with everything revolves can also be exciting contemporaries such as Vaughan Williams, what your body was doing and that is so but you can tell when they are reacting Bax and Bliss. Now people are looking important for me.’ to everything going on in the score. The at them again. Forsyth was another Later this year Power will get the chamber music repertoire is so diverse and Romantic who’s been neglected. His chance to put his own teaching theories it really nourishes me as a musician more concerto is a really touching piece of music into practice when he embarks on a spell as than if I were just doing solo work. I am but Tertis never played it. I think it might a visiting professor at the Royal College of so lucky to be able to do the two.’ have something to do with the fact it was Music. ‘It’s something I am going to take It’s fair to say that on my walk along the written for Émile Férir instead and not very seriously,’ he says. ‘It’s an incredibly South Bank on my way to meet Power I him. Either way, it’s a beautiful piece with important thing to do. I was taught in was hardly assaulted by images of superstar a real melting pot of influences.’ a certain way that worked for me and I viola players. Posters of violinists and cellists The recording of the Forsyth wasn’t would like to do the same. I certainly such as Janine Jansen and David Cohen without its complications and it very nearly believe the Kreutzer studies are the bible adorn the walls of London’s great arts didn’t happen at all. Power explains: for the viola. In each study there are so centre but worldwide viola stars are ‘We were originally going to record the many things you can learn from. As a nowhere to be seen – and I could count the Benjamin Dale Suite but the week before student I used to spend weeks on just one ones I could think of on the fingers of one we were due to record the parts arrived and study – those and the Carl Flesch scales. hand. The instrument has long been the the solo part didn’t match the orchestral But when it comes to music and repertoire, butt of many a musical joke and the idea of part.’ So he had a week in which to learn a one hopes one can impart some ideas making a living on it might be a frightening new piece. Power rose to the challenge and to the students. You really have to be one, but Power sees this as a challenge he enjoyed it. ‘The orchestra was sightreading a different teacher to each one. That’s the is more than willing to take on. ‘Solo on the day!’ he laughs, ‘but something like most important thing.’ concerts mean so much to me because I that is always going to get interesting results.’ Despite being a rising solo viola star, know it is still somewhat of a rarity for an The recording process is something Power has established a dual career as audience to hear the viola in a solo context. that Power takes seriously. ‘It’s important a chamber musician both with the Nash If I am perceived as an ambassador for the to point out that a recording is not a concert Ensemble and Leopold String Trio. viola, it’s a role I take very seriously indeed.’ on disc,’ he says. ‘The two have equal merits. ‘Very early on I started playing with His recording of the Cecil Forsyth In a recording environment you can push the Nash Ensemble and that’s really and York Bowen viola concertos with boundaries and constantly see yourself in the backbone of what I do.’ The job the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra the mirror – which is depressing but really with the Nash came up at a time when conducted by Martyn Brabbins, released good at the same time.’ Working with he was busy entering every competition by Hyperion in 2005, attracted great producer Andrew Keener on the Bowen going and seemed to be heading for a critical approval. The review in The Strad and Forsyth disc was also something that career exclusively playing as a soloist. praised the ‘wit and flair’ of Power’s Power relished: ‘He always gets wonderful Yet Power feels that playing with such ‘beautifully rendered’ performance. results and his ears are second to none.’

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