Founder & President
Founder and President of Sistema Europe, Marshall Marcus is also Executive & Artistic Director of the European Union Youth Orchestra, CEO of the International Youth Foundation of GB, a Europe 101 Leadership Programme ambassador, and advises the National Orchestra For All (NOFA) and the Nucleo Project.
During 2023 Marshall's speaking engagements include 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 lectured in more than twenty countries worldwide.
Before founding Sistema Europe, Marshall was Head of Music at London's Southbank Centre/Royal Festival Hall (2006-2011), and Co-founder, then Chairman and CEO of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (1985-2006). He 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 Council's Arts and Creative Economy Advisory group (2012-2018). He advised and tutored organisations including Fundación Musical Simón Bolívar (initiating what became the Orquesta Barroca Simón Bolívar), the ‘I, Culture’ Orchestra (musicians from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Poland and Ukraine), and the Neojiba Project (Brazil). In 2013 he founded SERA, the online global Sistema Evaluation and Research Archive.
In 2014 Marshall helped create the European Music Campus and Towards 2020, a Creative Europe programme designed to help equip young EU musicians with the skills they need to face 21st century challenges. He is particularly interested in ways we can join together 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'.
From 1977 to 2002 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, 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. From Claudio Abbado to Simon Rattle, Marshall has worked with many of the world’s greatest musicians, and in an eclectic career played with musicians as varied as the Moscow Soloists, Baaba Maal, and The Michael Nyman Band. His 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.
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Information valid as of summer 2023.