LEON BOSCH AWARDED 2024 COBBETT MEDAL FOR SERVICES TO CHAMBER MUSIC
British musician the first double bass player to be honoured in award’s 100 year history
The Worshipful Company of Musicians will award its 2024 William Willson Cobbett Medal for services to chamber music to Leon Bosch on 16 July. He will be the first double bass player to be so honoured since the medal was first awarded in 1924.
The British virtuoso, who was born in Cape Town in 1961 before moving to the UK to study at the Royal Northern College of Music, will also become the first Black musician to receive the award.
Leon Bosch is artistic director of I Musicanti, a mixed instrument ensemble comprising some of the most experienced and respected musicians in the UK. Since its formation in 2016, I Musicanti has appeared in concert series at Kings Place, Wigmore Hall, St Johns Smith Square, Conway Hall and in concerts and festivals around the UK. In 2021, the group released a world premiere recording of the three string quintets by Giovanni Bottesini on the SOMM Recordings label. I Musicanti can next be heard in concert at the Church Stretton Arts Festival on 27 July 2024.
In 2017, Bosch established the Ubuntu Ensemble, which comprises fellow South Africa-born musicians now based in the UK. The ensemble takes its name from a South African philosophy that believes we do not find our humanity in isolation but through connection with others. The Ubuntu Ensemble can be heard on 20 July 2024 at Wigmore Hall as part of the African Concert Series curated by Rebeca Omordia, pianist and duo partner of Leon Bosch.
Throughout his career, Leon Bosch has performed chamber music in duo partnerships, notably with John Thwaites, Sung-Suk Kang and his current duo partner, Rebeca Omordia. His many duo recordings, principally for Meridian Records, include surveys of British, South African, Russian and Hungarian double bass music as well as portraits of Giovanni Bottesini, Allan Stephenson and two Catalan virtuosos, Pedro Valls and Josep Cervera.
To further support his commitment to the dissemination of music for double bass, Leon Bosch set up I Musicanti Publishing. Editions in the catalogue include a number of Cervera’s works, the manuscripts for which Bosch was instrumental in locating and bringing to light.
Leon Bosch is also renowned for commissioning new pieces, both for double bass and for chamber ensemble. I Musicanti’s 2017/18 St Johns Smith Square series ‘Alexandra and the Russians’ featured four new works by Alexandra Harwood alongside Russian chamber music from Glinka and Tchaikovsky to Shostakovich and Prokofiev, Schnittke and Smirnov. A number of original works written for him appear on his recordings; meanwhile, a recording of newly written double bass sonatinas is in preparation.
Leon Bosch has a long history of chamber music guest collaborations with musicians of the highest calibre dating back to his student days. Other collaborations include with the Lindsay, Brodsky and Belcea string quartets, as well as with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, with whom he was principal double bass from 1995 until 2014. He has also appeared as a concerto soloist with internationally renowned orchestras and conductors, having made his solo debut with the Philharmonia orchestra under Antony Beaumont in 1984.
Born in Cape Town, Leon Bosch began studying the double bass as a music student at the University of Cape Town, having enrolled as a cellist. He had initially hoped to study law but, having been imprisoned as a youth for anti-apartheid activities, was prevented from doing so by apartheid authorities. On graduating, he moved to Manchester to study for the PPRNCM Diploma at the Royal Northern College of Music. He became a British citizen in 2000.
As well as pursuing his activities as soloist and chamber musician around the world, he is in demand internationally as conductor, ensemble director and teacher, and has a professorship at Trinity Laban College of Music and Dance in London. He also has a masters degree in Intelligence and International Relations from Salford University.
Leon Bosch says: “I am both honoured and gratified to receive this medal, not only because of the long history of illustrious previous recipients but also because chamber music has been a central part of my musical life throughout my career – I can remember as a student playing with the Amadeus Quartet and making my first appearance at Wigmore Hall with Maria Joao Pires. I have long believed that chamber music offers the ideal possibility for musicians to express themselves with total artistic freedom, and is one of the ideal ways that classical music has for sharing that sense of freedom with audiences and colleagues alike.”
Notes for editors
The Walter Willson Cobbett Medal is awarded annually by the Worshipful Company of Musicians to an individual in recognition of their services to chamber music. It was inaugurated in 1924 when it was presented to composer Thomas Dunhill. Subsequent recipients include Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge (1925), Sir Edward Elgar (1928), Ralph Vaughan Williams (1930), Myra Hess (1944), Sir Yehudi Menuhin (1959), Julian Bream (2002). The previous three recipients are Lawrence Power, Nicholas Daniel and Corina Belcea. As well as a gold medal for outstanding members of the music profession, the company awards annually a number of medals for services to music, including awards in the fields of jazz, pop, choral direction, vocal music, brass bands and youth bands.
The Worshipful Company of Musicians is the only City of London livery company dedicated to the performing arts. It was formed in 1500 as the Musicians Company, and received its royal charter in 1604 when it took its current name. As well as organising concerts and social and cultural events for its members it awards around £200,000 annually in bursaries, prizes, scholarships and grants to students, and invests £20,000 annually in its Young Artists’ Programme.
Leon Bosch may be contacted on leon@leonbosch.com or 07778192604