Lorraine McAslan

Since then she has shared the concert platform with many of Britain’s greatest orchestras, including the London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National, Royal Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and English Chamber Orchestra, and with conductors including Andrew Davis, Raymond Leppard, Jerzy Maksymuik, Libor Pesek, the late Alexander Gibson and Jukka Pekka Saraste.

Her European debut with the Bern Symphony Orchestra under Eliahu Inbal was broadcast live on Swiss Radio. She has performed regularly on BBC Radio 3 and her TV appearances have included performances with BBC Welsh and BBC Scottish Orchestras and on BBC 2’s Music in Camera series. Her most recent venture has been the premiere broadcast of the violin concerto of the British composer Lionel Sainsbury with the BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor Barry Wordsworth.

She has performed extensively throughout Europe, America, Canada and Japan. Lorraine has been guest soloist with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and performed with the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra for the Sultan of Oman.

A committed chamber musician, Lorraine has performed in recital with John Blakely, Nigel Clayton, John Lenehan, Michael Dussek and Piers Lane at festivals throughout the UK including Aldeburgh, Three Choirs, Bath and Cheltenham.

Lorraine started her recording career in 1985 with an acclaimed disc of the Elgar and Walton violin and piano sonatas for ASV. Since then her recordings to date for ASV, Collins, Naxos and Dutton include concertos by Mozart, Hoffman and sonatas by Beethoven, Debussy, Ravel, Saint-Saens, Martinu, Janáček, Holst, Bridge and Britten. Her critically acclaimed recording of the Britten concerto with the English Chamber Orchestra, conductor Steuart Bedford, was released in 1990 and re-released in 2007 by Naxos.

Her interest in neglected British composers has led her to record several discs for the Dutton Epoch series including works by Kenneth Leighton, Arthur Benjamin, Sir Granville Bantok , Dorothy Howell, Benjamin Dale and two discs by Rebecca Clarke. Lorraine’s performance of the York Bowen Concerto with the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by the late Vernon Handley, was released in 2006.

Her long awaited recording of the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Concerto and Julius Harrison’s Bredon Hill with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas Braithewaite, was released by Nimbus in 2008. Lorraine was the leader of the Maggini String Quartet 2006–08, during which time she continued to champion British music by recording Sir Lennox Berkeley, William Alwyn, and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies for Naxos.

In 2009, she recorded concertos by Richard Arnell, Guirne Creith and Thomas Pitfield with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Martin Yates conducting and in 2010 the Haydn Wood and Lionel Sainsbury Concerti with the BBC Concert Orchestra with Gavin Sutherland and Barry Wordsworth conducting.