EUYO Executive & Artistic Director Marshall Marcus is also CEO of the International Youth
Foundation of GB, Founder and President of Sistema Europe, and a Europe 101 Leadership
Programme ambassador. Current advisory positions include the National Orchestra For All
(NOFA), Nucleo, the Honorary Council of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the
Advisory Council of the European Heritage Hub.
Before joining EUYO, Marshall was Head of Music at London’s Southbank Centre and Royal
Festival Hall (2006-2011), and Co-founder, then Chairman and CEO of the Orchestra of the
Age of Enlightenment (1985-2006). He lead Southbank Centre’s International Sistema
Research Programme, was a member of Sistema Global’s Advisory Board, worked with the
British Council to develop new international youth orchestra networks, and was a member
of the British Council’s Arts and Creative Economy Advisory group (2012-2018). In 2014
Marshall created the European Music Campus and was the driving force behind Towards
2020, a Creative Europe programme designed to help equip young EU musicians with the
skills they need to face 21st century challenges. Marshall’s current work focuses on the ways
in which cultural activity can help societal developments, seeing culture as one of our best
‘engines’ for global exchange, learning and development. He is also particularly interested in
ways for us to join together in society to become more sustainable in our work and daily
lives, and in 2022 was General Editor of the European Commission’s Voices of Culture
brainstorming report ‘Culture and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals: Challenges &
Opportunities’.
During 2023 Marshall’s speaking engagements include with the Global Leaders Institute, the
Belgrade Heritage Forum ‘Rethink Reuse Refuse’, the World Human Forum’s 2nd Delos
Global Gathering, El Sistema’s 2023 Global Summit, and the Venice European Cultural
Heritage Summit. In past years he has taught and/or lectured in Abu Dhabi, Armenia,
Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, China, Dubai, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Venezuela, the UK and the USA. Marshall
has advised and tutored in organisations including the Fundación Musical Simón Bolívar
(Venezuela), the Eastern Partnership ‘I, Culture’ Orchestra (composed of musicians from
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Poland and Ukraine), and the Neojiba
Project (Brazil). He also created and directs SERA, the online global Sistema Evaluation and
Research Archive.
Marshall’s board, jury and advisory work has included The Royal Philharmonic Society, The
Association of British Orchestras, The British Association of Concert Halls, Kings Place Music
Foundation, Sphinx UK, BBC Musician of the Year, and The Leverhulme Trust. He is an
Associate of the Royal College of Music London, a member of the Honorary Council of the
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and an Honorary Fellow of the Musician’s Company.
Before entering the world of music programming and management, Marshall enjoyed a 25-
year career as an orchestral, solo and chamber violinist, recording and performing in more
than 60 countries. He was a member of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, then became Concert
Master of the Orquesta Filarmonica de Caracas, Professor with the Simón Bolívar Youth
Orchestra of Venezuela, a Principal player with Amsterdam Baroque, Leader of the Orchestra
of St. John’s Smith Square, and a player member and Executive Director of Endymion
Ensemble. Marshall worked regularly with artists such as Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Roger
Norrington, Pierre Boulez, Daniel Barenboim, Claudio Abbado, Mariss Jansons, Gustavo
Dudamel, Mitsuko Uchida, Maurizio Pollini, Lang Lang, and Cecilia Bartoli, and in an eclectic
playing career, collaborated as a performer with musicians as varied as the Moscow Soloists,
Baaba Maal, and The Michael Nyman Band.
Marshall’s recordings include the Rossini String Sonatas with Chi-Chi Nwanoku, Richard
Tunnicliffe and Elizabeth Wallfisch, Globokar’s string quartet Discours VI with Domus, the
complete Beethoven symphonies with Sir Roger Norrington, complete Bach Cantatas with
Ton Koopman, complete Haydn Symphonies with Christopher Hogwood, and numerous film
scores.
Marshall read Philosophy and Experimental Psychology at The Queen’s College Oxford
University, and postgraduate English Education studies at Trinity College Cambridge
University. His violin teachers included principally Michael Vyner, Eta Cohen and Frederick
Grinke.