Violist Lawrence Power Wins the UK's Cobbett Medal

The medal, which recognizes services to chamber music, has been awarded since 1924

The Walter Willson Cobbett Medal celebrates outstanding service to the field of chamber music in the United Kingdom. This year's award was given to British violist Lawrence Power.

Awarded each year by the Worshipful Company of Musicians, the Cobbett Medal was first established in 1924 with an endowment from the amateur violinist Walter Willson Cobbett — who would go on to become the company's master.

Lawrence Power frequently appears as a soloist with some of the world's most distinguished orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony, the Concertgebouw, and the Philharmonia Orchestra. As a chamber musician, he regularly performs at Verbier, Salzburg, Aspen, Oslo and other festivals — alongside artists such as Nicholas Alstaedt, Simon Crawford-Phillips, Vilde Frang, Maxim Vengerov, and Joshua Bell.

In 2020 Power launched a Lockdown Commissions project, which yielded new works from the composers Huw Watkins, Garth Knox, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Cassandra Miller, Martyn Brabbins, William Marsey, and Thomas Larche

Power was also appointed to the five-year position of Associate Artist at London's Wigmore Hall in 2021.

He joins previous recipients of the Cobbett Medal including cellist Steven Isserlis, pianist Graham Johnson, and violinist David Takeno.