Marcus Barcham-Stevens has broadcast as a soloist on BBC Radio 3 and live in recital on Classic FM. He has played chamber music with Peter Donohoe, Paul Lewis, Peter Hill, Emmanuelle Haim and last year with Thomas Adès in music by Adès at Carnegie Hall.
He has performed as a chamber musician at the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room with the Park Lane Group, Manchester's Bridgewater Hall, Symphony Hall Birmingham, the International Musicians’ Seminar Prussia Cove, the Library of Congress in Washington, the Haydn String Quartet Festival, Esterhazy and for several years at the BMIC Cutting Edge Series in London.
Solo work has included Lou Harrison’s Concerto for violin with percussion at the London Spitalfields Festival, the London première of James Dillon's Traumwerk for violin and piano with Jonathan Powell for the BMIC, David Sawer’s The Memory of Water with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Bach's Aminor Concerto and the Double Violin Concerto with the Innovation Chamber Ensemble, which was formed out of string players from the CBSO, and Berg’s Violin Concerto with the Cambridge University Music Society.
He has recorded over 20 pieces of contemporary chamber or ensemble music, by composers including Philip Cashian, Roger Smalley, Michael Finnissy, Howard Skempton, Anthony Payne, Michael Zev Gordon, Diana Burrell and Alistair Hinton, including for labels NMC, Altarus, Métier and Riverun; for Ensemble Modern and the BMIC.
Marcus is also a member of the Aiso String Quartet, the chamber ensemble Chroma and the contemporary ensemble Plus-Minus.
Marcus also performs in recital with his wife, pianist Christina Lawrie, and they have played together in England and Scotland.
Marcus has guest led Ensemble Modern Frankfurt, Musikfabrik Köln, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Ensemble Cymru, the National Youth Chamber Orchestra, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra USA and the Cyprus Chamber Orchestra.
Conductors for whom he has played in contemporary groups include Pierre Boulez, Heinz Holliger, Sir Simon Rattle, George Benjamin and Oliver Knussen.
Marcus held the position of Principal First Violin with the CBSO from 2000-2002. He has played as guest Principal 2nd Violin for Sir John Eliot Gardiner's Orchèstre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, the English Chamber Orchestra and the Scottish Ensemble. Marcus has also played with Rachel Podger, Gary Cooper and Jane Booth in the period ensemble f2 at the Wigmore Hall.
Marcus received starred First Class Honours in Music from Cambridge University and the Diploma for Advanced Instrumental Studies from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he studied with David Takeno. He was awarded the Norman-Butler Scholarship from the English-Speaking Union to the Tanglewood Music Center USA, where he was invited back as a Violin Fellow and received the Henry Cabot Award for outstanding contribution. Marcus is recipient of the Harriet Cohen Award, a scholarship from the Clothworkers City of London Guild, the Donald Wort Prize for performance from Cambridge University and the Mortons Bequest for performance of Beethoven from the Guildhall School.
