New LSO principal double bass among RCM new appointments

London’s Royal College of Music (RCM) has announced that the London Symphony Orchestra’s new principal double bass, Rodrigo Moro Martín, will join the college’s String Faculty in September this year. Martin is one of six new string professors, joining alongside viola professors Isabel Villanueva and Bryony Gibson-Cornish, violin professor Emily Sun and cello professors Timothy Walden and Gemma Rosefield.

An RCM alumnus, Martín will be returning to the String Faculty in September 2023 as a professor of double bass, having this week joined the London Symphony Orchestra as principal double bass. Alongside his teaching and performing roles in London, Martín will continue as the principal double base at both the Orquesta Nacional de España and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

RCM Head of Strings, Mark Messenger, said: ‘It is a privilege to invite renowned pedagogues and international artists to join the RCM, but also exciting to give opportunities to the new generation of great teachers.’

Martín will join alongside a familiar face with newly appointed cello professo Timothy Walden, principal cello of the English National Opera, also appearing regularly as a guest with the LSO. Gemma Rosefield, winner of the Pierre Fournier Award in 2007, also joins the RCM string faculty as a cello professor.

Viola professors Isabel Villanueva, who won the Culture Award of the Community of Madrid in 2019, and Bryony Gibson-Cornish, who is a member of the Marmen Quartet which won the Banff and Bordeaux International String Quartet Competitions, will also join the faculty. Adelaide Symphony Orchestra artist in association Emily Sun will also join RCM as a violin professor.