Rodney Friend

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

(born in Bradford, 1939) is an English violinist. Born in

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

, Friend's father was a local tailor. At the age of 12 he won a scholarship to the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...

after Sir Reginald Thatcher, the then principal of the R.A.M, heard Friend perform for the first time. Friend also studied subsequently at the Royal Manchester College of Music. At the Royal Academy of Music, Friend studied under the tutelage of Frederick Grinke. He later studied with Endre Wolf, Menuhin and Szeryng. In 1964 Friend became the youngest ever leader/concertmaster of the

London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of five permanent symphony orchestras based in London. It was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Symphony ...

, working closely with Bernard Haitink, Barenboim, Solti and Giulini. In 1975 he was invited by the

New York Philharmonic Orchestra The New York Philharmonic, officially the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., globally known as New York Philharmonic Orchestra (NYPO) or New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, is a symphony orchestra based in New York City. It is ...

to be their Concertmaster, playing concerts and recording worldwide with Bernstein, Boulez and Mehta. In 1991 he formed the Solomon Trio with whom he toured Europe extensively. In 2008 the first two volumes of his books The Orchestral Violinist were published. Friend is at present an artistic director at Cambridge International String Academy at

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

. He plays a violin made by

Giuseppe Guarneri Bartolomeo Giuseppe "del Gesù" Guarneri (, , ; 21 August 1698 – 17 October 1744) was an Italian luthier from the Guarneri family of Cremona. He rivals Antonio Stradivari (1644–1737) with regard to the respect and reverence accorded his inst ...

dated 1696. He was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to music. In 2019, he published a workbook, The Violin in 5ths - Developing Intonation and Sound, in which he detailed a teaching method regarding intonation and sound that he has developed and perfected over decades of experience working with many virtuosos including

Jascha Heifetz Jascha Heifetz (; December 10, 1987) was a Russian-born American violinist. Born in Vilnius, he moved while still a teenager to the United States, where his Carnegie Hall debut was rapturously received. He was a virtuoso since childhood. Fritz ...

and

David Oistrakh David Fyodorovich Oistrakh (; – 24 October 1974), was a Soviet classical violinist, violist and conductor. Oistrakh collaborated with major orchestras and musicians from many parts of the world and was the dedicatee of numerous violin w ...

In popular culture

In 1972 whilst leading the London Philharmonic Orchestra Rodney performed with the orchestra during their recording sessions for the Peddlers' album ''Suite London'' released on Philips records.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Friend, Rodney English classical violinists British male violinists Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music Concertmasters Musicians from Bradford 1939 births Living people Members of the Order of the British Empire 21st-century classical violinists 21st-century British male musicians Concertmasters of the New York Philharmonic Male classical violinists