| Biography | Rodney Friend is an English violinist, born (1940) in Bradford, Yorkshire. Friend, son of a local tailor won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music at the age of 12. On hearing him play for the first time Sir Reginald Thatcher the then principal of the R.A.M gave Friend an open scholarship immeadiately. Friend also studied at the Manchester School 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 of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, working closely with Bernard Haitink, Barenboim, Solti and Giulini. In 1975 he was invited by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra 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, Cambridge. He plays a violin made by Giuseppe Guarneri dated 1696. |