George Strivens Horn

Praised for his “richness” and “warmth of tone” (The Scotsman; The Arts Desk), French Horn player George Strivens enjoys a diverse career of solo, chamber, and orchestral performance. Recent engagements include Oxford International Song Festival and Aldeburgh Festival, where George was one of “seven impeccable instrumentalists” (The Times) in the critically acclaimed production of Britten’s Curlew River.

As guest principal horn, George plays with orchestras across Europe including the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Aurora, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish, Finnish Radio, London Symphony and Scottish Chamber Orchestras. He also records music for films at Abbey Road and AIR Studios.

With his wind quintet, Ensemble Renard, George has appeared at Newbury Spring Festival, Folkestone New Music and the Aldeburgh Festival where the group had two “inspirational […] appearances” (Jari Kallio) exploring works of Berio and Boulez. The group were Chamber Music Fellows of the Royal Academy of Music, London and are now City Music Foundation Artists.

George is a keen advocate for new music and has premiered dozens of pieces of solo and chamber music. Composers such as Martin Bussey, Tom Harrold and Piers Hellawell have written solo horn works for George. On disc, George can be heard on Resonus Classics in A Brother Abroad - an album of Martin Bussey’s chamber and solo works.

Alongside his performance career, George is a successful arranger. His chamber arrangement of Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs is published by Boosey & Hawkes and was premiered by Elin Rombo, Simon Crawford-Phillips, Malin Broman and Christopher Parkes at the Change Music Festival, Sweden. It has since been performed in the Netherlands, Canada and the UK. Further arrangements have been performed at Fletching Music & Arts Festival; by Claire Booth with Ensemble 360 and by Louise Alder at the Wigmore Hall.