Artistic Director – Kate Gould

Kate Gould is a highly versatile cellist, best known for her extensive career in the world of chamber music, principal cello orchestral work and her longstanding membership of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

She formed the Leopold String Trio at the Royal Academy of Music in 1991. They recorded extensively for Hyperion Records, including discs of Schubert, Mozart and Brahms in partnership with pianists MarcAndré Hamelin and Paul Lewis. They were inaugural BBC New Generation Artists and collected many prestigious accolades including a Borletti‐Buitoni Trust Award and the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Award for Chamber Music.

The final line-up with Lawrence Power and Isabelle van Keulen gave their last performance in 2012 at the Barbican, playing Tippett’s Triple Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, live on Radio 3. After this time Kate turned her focus to piano trios with the London Bridge Trio, recording piano chamber music by Frank Bridge, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Fauré.

Kate is Artistic Director and cellist of the flourishing Winchester Chamber Music Festival in her hometown, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2027. She is coartistic director of the Ironstone Chamber Music Festival and often invited to other festivals, playing regularly in Penarth, Corbridge and Peasmarsh as well as the Festival de los Siete Lagos, Argentina.

Her frequent guest principal cello engagements have recently included London Mozart Players, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique.

Kate often gives classes and adjudicates prizes and exams at the London music colleges. She has coached on many chamber music and national youth orchestra courses and will be teaching at the Virtuoso International Music Academy in August 2026, held at Winchester College.