London Symphony Orchestra Names Two New Leaders

Violinists Benjamin Marquise Gilmore and Andrej Power have been appointed to lead the ensemble

Violinists Benjamin Marquise Gilmore and Andrej Power will step into their new roles at The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) in August 2023 and will join current leader Roman Simovic.

British violinist Benjamin Marquise Gilmore comes to the role from a jointly-held concertmaster position with the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Also a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Navarra Quartet, Gilmore has made solo appearances with the SCO and with Camerata Salzburg.

Gilmore studied with Natalia Boyarskaya at the Yehudi Menuhin School, and later with Pavel Vernikov, Julian Rachlin, and Miriam Fried. He has been a prize recipient of the Oskar Back, Joseph Joachim, and Salzburg Mozart competitions, and has participated in festivals such as Kuhmo, Prussia Cove, and Ravinia.

In 2014, violinist Andrej Power became the youngest concertmaster in the history of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Power has appeared as a soloist with most of the orchestras in Sweden, as well as in other parts of Europe, the United States, and China.

Power studied with Henryk Kowalski at Stockholm's Royal College of Music and with Zakhar Bron at the Zurich University of the Arts. Among other honors, he was the winner of the Ljunggran Competition in 2011.

When asked what the pair are looking forward to in the future with the LSO, Power said, "I'm very much looking forward to working with Sir Antonio Pappano in October. I'm particularly excited to play Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra, Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances and Beethoven's Seventh Symphony during that period."

Gilmore added that "Next season I look forward to working again with Nathalie Stutzmann, and for the first time with Barbara Hannigan. It’s always a privilege to travel the world and see different places, and as a musician one can sometimes take it for granted. I visited Seoul for the first time last year and can’t wait to return; I loved the city's vibrancy, the food (of course), and the amazing mountains which begin right on the outskirts of the city and are very easy to reach. Closer to home, Paris is hard to beat, so I’m glad the LSO plays there quite regularly."