Players

OFE offers some of the finest young musical talent the UK has to offer, united by our love of music and commitment to engaging new audiences with climate change and the natural world.

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* denotes section principal
** denotes section co-principal

Victoria Gill & Emma Lisney | Co-leaders

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Victoria Gill is currently a postgraduate at the Royal Academy of Music, where she is a Help Musicians UK Award holder, leads the Manson Ensemble, and is a member of the Millais Trio and Feguro Quartet. She is a former member of the National Youth Orchestra, and studied at the Purcell School of Music. Victoria holds a First Class degree in Music from Oxford, where she led the University Orchestra. She also studied with Yossi Zivoni and was an apprentice of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra. She has taken part in masterclasses with Máté Szücs, Vadim Repin and Markus Daünert.

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Emma Lisney graduated from Oxford University (First Class) in 2018. She previously studied with Pauline Scott and now learns with Paul Barritt. She has had masterclasses with Vadim Repin, Pinchas Zukerman and Maxim Vengerov. In 2016 she won the Oxfordshire Concerto Competition. She has performed throughout Europe, including partnering Dame Emma Kirkby in concerts in London and Norfolk. In 2017 Emma toured the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the New English Concert Orchestra.

She has recently been awarded a fellowship with the Southbank Sinfonia for 2019. In 2019 she will also be performing the Brahms Double Concerto at St John’s Smith Square with the Royal Orchestral Society.

Emma’s violin is a Paul Bailly (circa 1890), kindly lent by Beare Violins Ltd.

John Warner | Founder & Artistic Director

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John Warner studied Music at St Peter’s College, Oxford, graduating with First Class Honours in 2016, and an MSt with Distinction in 2017. He is Founder and Artistic Director of Orchestra for the Earth, and Chief Conductor of Central London Orchestra. Recent conducting engagements include staged excerpts from Tristan und Isolde at the Sheldonian Theatre (Oxford), Smyth’s The Boatswain’s Mate at Grimeborn Opera Festival, masterclasses with the Britten Pears Orchestra and Marin Alsop, and guest appearances with Oxford Chamber Orchestra, Oxford Sinfonia, and the Orchestra of St. John’s. Since 2018 John has also assisted Antony Negus at Longborough Festival Opera. Upcoming projects include a return to Grimeborn with Amy Beach’s Cabildo, a debut with the Oxford University Orchestra, a masterclass with the BBC Philharmonic, and Mahler’s Fourth Symphony in Amsterdam as part of Het Concertgebouw’s Mahler Festival 2020.