ANTHONY FRIEND
Clarinettist

Anthony Friend is a clarinettist praised for his ‘liquid tone’ (Seen and Heard International) and the ‘vision and intensity’ of his playing (The Observer). He combines a career in orchestral, solo and chamber music performance with his work offstage, as Artistic Director of the Wimbledon International Music Festival and in a range of entrepreneurial ventures for which he has received an award from the Royal Philharmonic Society and been described as a ‘hero’ by The Arts Desk.

 

Anthony’s chamber music collaborators include the Sacconi, Allegri, Solem, Maxwell, Philharmonia Orchestra and Agate string quartets, pianists Antonio Oyarzabal, Leon McCawley, Alexander Ullman and Joseph Havlat, cellist Laura van der Heijden, the London Chamber Ensemble, Hermes Experiment and Pelléas Ensemble. 

 

After many performances together, he officially formed Ensemble Mi in 2025 and performed Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time to a sold-out Fabric nightclub. The Arts Desk wrote that ‘Friend hypnotically explored the range of what his instrument could achieve in a piece that’s demandingly written… the whole auditorium was transfixed’ and described the performance as ‘enthrallingly authoritative’.

 

As an orchestral musician he has worked with conductors such as Simon Rattle, Semyon Bychkov, Edward Gardner, Sakari Oramo, Kirill Karabits and Mark Wigglesworth. He regularly freelances with orchestras such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and was a member of Southbank Sinfonia in 2017. He has been broadcast on BBC radio and television and played in major venues in the UK and abroad, and has recorded soundtracks for major films and television series.

 

Anthony writes programme notes and liner notes for major international concert halls and record labels, and was also co-founder of new music series Filthy Lucre (2011-2024), founder of Spotlight Chamber Concerts and the Bandstand Chamber Festival.

 

Anthony studied at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, the Royal Academy of Music and subsequently with Patrick Messina in Paris.