Catherine Mackintosh, 2020/22

Catherine Mackintosh (known to the profession as Cat) is one of the most notable pioneers of the British early music scene. After picking up a treble viol while at music college she never looked back. Consort-playing gave her the foundations of understanding the aesthetics and the language of baroque music, and that was soon translated to the violin. She led a number of orchestras, notably Christopher Hogwood’s Academy of Ancient Music, and later co-founded and led the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment for two decades.

As a founder of the Purcell Quartet she recorded and performed all the major works of the baroque trio-sonata repertoire (and much more) the world over. She was also Britain’s pioneer and champion of the viola d’amore. Cat’s influence as a teacher and educator has been unique and far-reaching, with many generations of violinists, violists and other instrumentalists passing through her hands at the Royal College of Music, the Royal Conservatoire The Hague, and on numerous courses world-wide.