The South African-born bassist is both the first double bassist and the first black musician to receive the award
South African-born double bassist Leon Bosch has been awarded the centenary William Willson Cobbett Medal by The Musicians’ Company. The medal was inaugurated by William Willson Cobbett in 1924 and is presented annually to a distinguished musician for their service to chamber music. Previous recipients of the medal include Steven Isserlis, Richard Ireland, Cecil Aronowitz, Lionel Tertis, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, among many others.
Bosch is both the first double bassist and the first black musician to receive the award. He is the artistic director of mixed-ensemble I Musicanti, which focuses on presenting programmes of oft-overlooked repertoire, and established the Ubuntu Ensemble in 2017, which comprises South African-born musicians now residing in the UK.
Bosch has also performed with ensembles such as the Lindsay and Brodsky Quartets, and the Zukerman Chamber Players. In addition to his career as a double bass virtuoso, Bosch is also sought after as a conductor and teacher, and was the principal double bassist of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields from 1995 –2014.
Following the award, Bosch released the following statement on social media:
‘It was an honour to be presented with The Cobbett Medal 2024 for services to the art of chamber music today. My first meaningful chamber music experience was at the age of 17, when I deputised for my teacher, Zoltan Kovats, in a performance of Schubert’s Trout Quintet with his professional colleagues in Cape Town.
’46 years later I have probably performed the Trout over a thousand times, commissioned many works for this, and other instrumentations, and performed chamber music around the world with some of the world’s most eminent artists and ensembles in some of the most prestigious and iconic concert halls.
’Receiving the Cobbett Medal in its 100th year, and joining a distinguished roll call of recipients including Sir Edward Elgar, Pablo Casals and Yehudi Menuhin is an inspiration.’
Read: ‘I had to disprove prejudices every day’: Leon Bosch’s Life Lessons
Listen: The Strad Podcast Episode #21: Leon Bosch on Bottesini
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