THOMAS GOULD “Violinist Thomas Gould is one of a new generation of classical musicians who refuses to be defined by a single genre” – The Guardian “One of the most talented and charismatic British violinists of the younger generation” – London’s Evening Standard “The young British violinist Thomas Gould seems intent on becoming the Nigel Kennedy of his generation…Scythingly scintillating playing from a young virtuoso with a magpie mind” – The Times Thomas Gould performs as soloist with orchestras worldwide including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, LA Phil New Music Group, Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne and West Australian Symphony Orchestra, collaborating with conductors such as John Adams, Thomas Adès, Nicholas Collon, Paul Daniel, Edward Gardner and Robin Ticciati. Thomas regularly appears at the largest UK venues, and in recent seasons has performed at venues including London's Royal Albert Hall, Barbican Centre and Royal Festival Hall, Manchester's Bridgewater Hall and Manchester Evening News Arena, and Birmingham's Symphony Hall and National Indoor Arena. Thomas has a great enthusiasm for bringing classical music to new audiences, and has headlined events such as Nonclassical, Limelight and Classical Kicks at Ronnie Scott's, as well as performing at major festivals including Latitude, London Jazz Festival and Festival No.6. Leader of Aurora Orchestra and associate leader of Britten Sinfonia, Gould appears as soloist and director with both groups and also enjoys regular collaborations with Sinfonietta Riga, London Sinfonietta and Mahler Chamber Orchestra, playing with the latter in the prestigious Lucerne Festival Orchestra under Andris Nelsons in 2014. In 2011 Thomas toured Australia as soloist and guest director with the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s ACO2 ensemble. A strong advocate of contemporary music, Thomas has given numerous world, UK and London premières, including concertos by Nico Muhly, John Woolrich, Hans Abrahamsen and Christopher Ball, and works by Harrison Birtwistle, Krzysztof Penderecki, Tarik O’Regan, Joe Duddell, Mark Bowden, Dai Fujikura and Michel van der Aa. In 2014 Thomas signed exclusively with Edition Classics, the classical imprint of Edition Records, a label with a wide-ranging reach to diverse audiences. The first release in spring 2015 will be a live recording of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending with Sinfonietta Riga. He has also recorded for Decca Classics (Nico Muhly’s Seeing is Believing with Aurora), Harmonia Mundi (Bach’s Goldberg Variations with Britten Sinfonia), Champs Hill Records (Piazzolla with Ksenija Sidorova, Mendelssohn with Artea String Quartet, two albums with swing band The Man Overboard Quintet, and a contemporary solo album called Bach to Parker), ACT (with Gwilym Simcock), Pavillon Records (with Jim Rattigan and Liam Noble), Basho Records (with Trish Clowes), Hyperion (works by Joseph Jongen) and Omnibus Classics (Christopher Ball’s Violin Concerto). He plays a 1782 J.B. Guadagnini violin and a six string electric violin made by John Jordan. .