Biography

Peter Mallinson balances a busy life of modern and period viola performance. He has performed with the Hanover Band and Orlando Consort, and is currently playing with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment as part of the Ann and Peter Law OAE Experience for young players, and with the Southbank Sinfonia.

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 string quartet, Spiccato Quartet, and his violin-viola duo, Duo Figaro, have a busy schedule of recitals and performances at weddings, receptions, and other private functions around 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 Sir Charles Mackerras, Jane Glover, Yan Pascal Tortelier and Trevor Pinnock. When Peter is not playing the viola, he enjoys teaching various instruments across a whole range of styles, singing with a number of choirs in London and Cambridge, and playing the organ for church services.