BIOGRAPHY
Peter Mallinson balances a busy life of modern and period viola performance. As well as being a member of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, he plays with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment as part of the Ann and Peter Law OAE Experience for young players, and Southbank Sinfonia. He has also performed with the Hanover Band, Music for Awhile, Southern Sinfonia, and the Orlando Consort.
He gave the UK première performance of Sally Beamish’s That Recent Earth for unaccompanied viola in 2006 and the world première of Robin Holloway’s Suite en Saga for solo viola in 2008, a work he later performed at the Ravenna Music Festival in its original incidental music form. He has also played in world premières of works by Amber Priestley, Diana Burrell, Claudia Molitor and Jeremy Thurlow, and performed with the Dmitri Ensemble and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge in première recordings (released on the Albion label) of works by Vaughan Williams, under the baton of Sir David Willcocks.
As well as solo and orchestral playing, Peter is much in demand as a chamber musician. He enjoys experimenting with all styles of music, and has recently recorded the soundtrack for several short films and worked with soul and jazz singer Jennifer Moore for her debut album, due to be released later this year. His various chamber ensembles have a busy schedule of recitals and performances at weddings, receptions, and other private functions around Europe and the UK.
Before studying at the Royal Academy of Music with Martin Outram and Jane Rogers, where he was ranked in second place (Highly Commended) in the Theodore Holland Viola Prize, Peter read music at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, where he was a Choral Scholar and holder of a University Instrumental Award. Before this, he was Head Chorister of New College Choir, Oxford. With his various orchestras and ensembles Peter has toured as far afield as Hong Kong and China, and played under the direction of musicians including Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Mark Elder, Jane Glover, Yan Pascal Tortelier, and Trevor Pinnock.
When Peter is not playing the viola he enjoys teaching: he gives private tuition on viola, violin, piano, singing, and theory, across a whole range of styles from classical to jazz, and has taught at schools including Durston House Boys’ School and Harvington Girls’ School in Ealing. He sings with choirs in London and Cambridge, and occasionally plays the organ for church services.
