Rodney Friend is an English violinist,
teacher, and author born (in Bradford, England) in 1939. He is best known for being the concertmaster
of three of the world’s best orchestras – the New York Philharmonic, the London
Philharmonic, and the BBC Symphony. He
began his violin studies at age seven. I do not know who his first teacher was. At 12, he received a scholarship to
study at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
His main teacher was Frederick Grinke, a Canadian violinist who played
for Churchill, Truman, and Stalin at the famous Potsdam Conference in the
summer of 1945. Friend later studied
with Endre Wolf, Yehudi Menuhin, and Henryk Szeryng. One usually-reliable source says he also
later studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music. In September, 1964, Friend became the concertmaster of
the London Philharmonic. He was 24 years
old. He played the Britten concerto in
his first solo appearance with this orchestra.
However, by then, he had made his London debut playing the Sibelius
concerto with the Halle Orchestra (in 1961) at the Festival Hall with John Barbirolli on the podium. Friend played with the London Philharmonic for 12 years. In 1975, he was invited to be the New York
Philharmonic’s concertmaster. He was 35
years old. He had already made his
American debut with this orchestra playing the Britten concerto. He probably began his tenure as concertmaster
in New York in the fall of 1976. On
March 10, 1977, in his new role as concertmaster, he soloed with the orchestra,
this time playing Karol Szymanowski’s first concerto. Erich Leinsdorf was on the podium. In 1981, Friend returned to England and became
the concertmaster of the BBC Symphony. In
that year also, he became professor of violin at the Royal College of
Music. He was 42 years old. Since 1990, he has devoted his time to
teaching, writing, judging international competitions, and playing and/or
directing chamber music concerts. He
formed the Solomon Trio in 1991. In
2006, Friend’s two-volume work entitled The Orchestral Violinist (a study guide
for orchestral players) appeared. It has
been acclaimed by many critics. In 2010,
he founded the Cambridge International String Academy at Trinity College. In 2015, he joined the Royal Academy of Music
faculty. In 2019, his pedagogic work
entitled The Violin in Fifths was published.
Many sources say it is a unique study guide. It is easily found on the internet. Among other violins, Friend has played (and
might still be playing) a Giuseppe (Battista) Guarneri violin dated 1696 (not a
Del Gesu.) (According to a usually-reliable source, for a time, he also played a Guarneri Del Gesu dated 1731.) Needless to say, he has
recorded (as an orchestral violinist) practically the entire orchestral repertoire. He has also appeared in every important
concert hall in the world and worked alongside the most eminent conductors and
soloists of the twentieth century. Here
is a very charming YouTube audio file of one of his commercial recordings as
soloist.
