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The Gould standardViolin virtuoso Thomas Gould has come a longway since the school orchestra. Hannah Nepilplays catch up. Photography Rob Greig

t must be karma, or something.When I was 14,1 first encounteredThomas Gould, the boy who not only

led my school orchestra, but made therest of us want to bin our violins indefeat. Thirteen years later, he's at my•nercy: I get to interrogate him, solidly,for a full hour. Hah.

Because, it turns out, Gould can stillplay the violin. At 29, he leads both theBritten Sinf onia and the AuroraOrchestra - two ensembles known fortheir inventive programming - and hasa thriving solo and chamber career.

He's a regular at venues including theWigmore Hall and Kings Place, and israpidly conquering internationalstages: this October, for example, hewill make his debut with the LAPhilharmonic New Music Groupperforming Nico Muhly's electric violinconcerto 'Seeing Is Believing', undercomposer John Adams.

No surprises so far. But where, 13years ago, there was a look of clean-shaven innocence, now there's stubbleand flowing locks. Is this, I ask, adeliberate development? 'Yes! What

Bow window Gould rocks the'nineteenth-century look1

are you trying to say?' he replies inmock outrage, before adding, 'the longhair does make life harder, for examplejust eating a sandwich outside can bedifficult. But I think audiences like thenineteenth-century violinist look.'

That said, there's nothing passeabout Gould: he is a member of theswing band 'Man Overboard' and isactively involved in the alternativeclassical scene, frequently performingat cross-genre events such as ClassicalKicks at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Cafe. Ithelps to be the same age as theaudience,' he says.' Those gigs are fullof twenty-thirtysomething-year-olds -the Twitter generation.' He himself isvery social-media-friendly, with a loyalfollowing on Facebook: one of his fanshas even knitted him a scarf anduploaded a photograph of him as aprofile picture. 'It's a commonmisconception that successfulmusicians are whisked everywhere in

Addison Lee cabs and don't need tocook for themselves,' says Gould. 'Thenew way is for performers to connectwith audiences."

The younger brother of Clio Gould -now leader of the Royal PhilharmonicOrchestra - Gould was exposed toclassical music from an early age. 'Cliois 15 years older than me, so when I wasthree and having my first lessons, shewas already 18 and having friendscome round to play Mozart quartets. Itseemed like a lot of fun and not terriblyhard work,' he tells me. Luckily, he hada natural aptitude for music. 'I had theusual amount of pushing from mymum, but she also wanted me to playtennis, do chess club, go to Cambridgeand be a doctor,' he says. It was onlywhen he was about 16 that he decidedthere was nothing he 'wanted to domore than play the violin'. Nowadayshe still looks to his sister for inspiration.'Clio's work ethic is to do as much asyou possibly can, and never turn downan engagement because you think

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Ittiinkl'mjust^struggling to

grow up really,ivvanttoliveasmuch as I can

-ayou're too grand for it or because it -3doesn't pay enough. I think I've taken, ga similar route.' ..ti

His musical tastes, however, aresurprisingly conservative. 'I lovecontemporary music but I feel happiestplaying Beethoven, Schubert,Tchaikovsky, Bach.' One of his dreamsis to play a concerto at the BBC Proms,and while he admits that the alternativeclassical scene does help to draw in newaudiences, he believes there is'something about the acoustics in thosebuilt-for-classical-music venues' that iscompromised elsewhere. 'People needto discover that they enjoy, for instance,Chopin in one of those alternativeclassical venues, then realise that it'snot scary or expensive going to aconcert at the Wigmore Hall,' he says.'Especially compared to how muchpeople are willing to spend going to popconcerts.'

'But Thomas' -1 butt in - 'you seemso rock 'n' roll...' He considers this for amoment. 'As a musician, I always thinkI'm quite traditional in the things I like,which doesn't sit so well with any rock'n' roll image,' he says. 'I think I'm juststruggling to grow up really. I want tolive as much as I can and get as much asI can out of beingyoung in London.'And does he hope to be doing the samein, say, 20 years' time? 'In case my mumreads this, I should say I'll be settleddown with two children or something,'he laughs, 'but secretly I do.'

Thomas Gould plays at ClassicalKicks @ Upstairs at Ronnie Scott'sonSeptSO. Fordetailsseewww.thomasgould.com. ;,. ̂www.timeout.com/classical i, \