Violin
Principal Player, London Sinfonietta
Nationality
British
Joan Atherton was born in Blackpool into a musical family. She was awarded an Exhibition to study with Felix Kok at the Royal College of Music, where she received a number of major prizes including the prestigious Tagore Gold Medal. She graduated with distinction and a Vaughan Williams Trust Scholarship enabled her to further her studies with Manoug Parikian.
Joan has held the position of Principal Second Violin with the London Sinfonietta since 1970. She has performed many of the major concerti and she is in demand as an orchestral leader, having guest led the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta, the Glyndebourne Touring Opera Orchestra, the Wren Orchestra, and the Milton Keynes City Orchestra, and the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada in Spain.
Recent solo performances with the London Sinfonietta have included Schnittke’s Concerto Grosso No. 1 (with Clio Gould) as part of the BBC’s 2001 January Composer Portrait weekend.
The violin on which Joan plays is a Mantegazza, made in Milan in 1764.
