Kate Gould – cello
Cellist of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and London Bridge Trio.
In 1990, Kate won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, where she formed the celebrated Leopold String Trio. Their discs for Hyperion Records received high critical acclaim, covering extensive string trios and works with piano by Brahms, Schubert and Mozart with Marc-André Hamelin and Paul Lewis. The trio were inaugural BBC New Generation Artists and selected for the ECHO ‘Rising Stars’ series, touring major concert halls worldwide. The prestigious Borletti‐Buitoni Trust Award enabled Kate to curate a 12-concert series at Wigmore Hall and Turner Sims and the trio went on to win the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Award for Chamber Music. With the final line-up of Isabelle van Keulen and Lawrence Power, they gave their last performance in 2011 at the Barbican with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, playing Tippett’s Triple Concerto live on Radio 3.
From 2012-2022 Kate turned her focus to the London Bridge Trio, producing many highly praised discs of music by Bridge, Faure, Schumann and Mendelssohn. They founded the flourishing Winchester Chamber Music Festival in Kate’s hometown and her role as Artistic Director continues to bring international chamber musicians to Winchester during the first weekend of May each year, as well as providing extensive outreach projects and nurturing young talent through the Emerging Quartet-in-Residence programme. The festival will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2027 with the commissioning of a new string quartet by Zoe Martlew.
Kate also directs the Ironstone Chamber Music Festival with her sister, violinist Lucy Gould and is regularly invited to the Penarth, Corbridge and Peasmarsh chamber music festivals and the Festival de los Siete Lagos, Argentina, where she enjoys coaching and mentoring young talent in the Patagonia region.
Kate is in much demand as a guest principal cellist, often invited by London Philharmonic Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Opera North, English Chamber Orchestra and London Mozart Players. She has also lead the sections of many gut-string orchestras and ensembles.
She has been a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe since 2000, which continues to tour extensively across Europe, Asia and the States, mostly working with Simon Rattle, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Robin Ticciati, Andras Schiff and Antonio Pappano. They presently have residencies at Esterhazy Palace, Eisenstadt and Kronberg Academy and most frequently perform in Berlin, Paris, Salzburg, Vienna and Ferrara. Kate sometimes plays as guest principal cello when projects have included an unaccompanied cello solo by Isabel Mundry, as part of the orchestral concert at Würzburg Mozartfest, Germany, and recently the Liszt Piano Concerto No 2 solos in the vast, ancient ampitheatre of Herculaneum, Athens.
Kate often gives classes and adjudicates prizes and exams at the Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music and the Guildhall. She has coached on many courses, including Cadenza (London), Città Alta Chamber Music Week (Bergamo), Lake District Summer Music and Chamber Music at Beares and often coaches the cellos of the National Youth Orchestra of Wales and Ulster Youth Orchestra.
