Alan George – A Profile
Dr. Alan George comes from Cornwall. He studied violin with Colin Sauer at Dartington Hall, viola with Herbert Downes in London, and chamber music with Sidney Griller at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1968, he won an open scholarship to King’s College Cambridge, where he became one of the founder members of the Fitzwilliam, remaining as its only viola player for all 56 years of its existence – that is, up until September 2024, at which point he had become the longest serving quartet player in Britain! With them he has played all over Europe, North America, Southern Africa, the Middle and Far East, as well as taking part in many recordings for the BBC, Decca, Linn, and Divine Art – they gave the British and American premières of the String Quartets Nos. 13, 14, and 15 of Dmitri Shostakovich, the scores of which had been sent by the composer himself, having visited them in York to hear them play.
Alongside quartet playing, he has since 1976 been actively involved with the Historical Instrument and Performance Practice movement, including eleven years as principal viola with John Eliot Gardiner’s Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. Until 1988 he was lecturer in music and director of the chamber orchestra at the University of York, and is the author of four studies of Shostakovich’s chamber music, as well as numerous articles and programme notes; he has also presented talks on BBC radio and at various festivals and concert venues throughout Britain and America; was tutor in viola at the Royal Northern College of Music, and a visiting lecturer/examiner at many colleges and universities both here and abroad. He has been conductor of the Academy of St. Olave’s Chamber Orchestra (in York) since 2009 and has been principal viola in Southern Sinfonia, as well as a lecturer with Martin Randall Travel. In 1981 he was made an Honorary Doctor of Music at Bucknell University, USA, and similarly honoured by the University of York in 2006. He is currently a Fellow Commoner at Clare Hall, Cambridge.
Alan is a trustee of the registered charity Jessie’s Fund – a memorial to his daughter Jessica, who died of a brain tumour in 1994 – which helps sick children through the therapeutic power of music, and which the Fitzwilliam has supported in its concerts and recordings. His viola is thought to have been made in Cremona (Italy) c1740/41, possibly by one of the Guarneri family; and his other instruments include an amazing exact copy by Steffi Koplin, together with a beautiful original made for him in 1995 by Roger Hansell.
