Jack Liebeck (16 September)
British/German violinist Jack Liebeck grew up in Muswell Hill and studied at the Purcell School and the Royal Academy of Music. His teacher from the age of eight until twenty-three was Mateja Marinkovic. Since then he has combined a career encompassing a large discography ranging from Bruch (the complete violin concertos and Scottish Fantasy for Hyperion), through chamber music to works written for him. These include Dario Marianelli’s Voyager Concerto, composed for him and Professor Brian Cox and Paul Dean’s A Brief History of Time, commissioned in memory of Professor Stephen Hawking - both works are a reflection of Jack’s fascination with all things scientific. He is the first Émile Sauret Professor of Violin at the Royal Academy of Music and has a developing relationship with the digital teaching app Nomadplay, which offers a unique opportunity for individual students to play alongside renowned musicians and orchestras.
He plays the 1785 ‘Ex-Wilhelmj’ J.B. Guadagnini violin and uses a Joseph Henry bow generously loaned by the pianist Kathron Sturrock in memory of her late husband Professor David Bennett, a pioneer of modern intensive care medicine.
When not making music, Jack is an accomplished photographer: his photographs include portraits of fellow musicians Paul Lewis, Alfred Brendel and Lawrence Power, and he is to be seen as the proud owner of his pet lurcher Mollie on the front cover of his CD of Brahms and Schoenberg violin concertos (Orchid Classics).
