Fraser Bowles is a freelance orchestral and session cellist based in London, UK. He has worked with London Sinfonietta, the English Symphony Orchestra, Lorne Balfe, Isobel Griffiths (Spitfire Audio/Hans Zimmer sessions), Senbla Concert Orchestra (Britpop Classical), The Novello Orchestra (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Muppet Christmas Carol) and for Troy Miller’s Kingdom Orchestra, performing/recording for Gregory Porter, and Vince Pope - recording on his soundtracks to HBO’s “True Detective: Night Country” and ITV’s “Mr Bates vs The Post Office”.

Fraser’s commercial work through Parallax Orchestra includes performances and recording sessions with Alter Bridge, Ardyn, Astræa, Bethesda Game Studios, Bring Me The Horizon, dodie, Eminem, Esoterica, Half Moon Run, Lockie Chapman, Marie White, Toh Kay and Sweet Billy Pilgrim.

In 2023, Fraser founded the Prism String Ensemble alongside Romana Szczepaniak, Phoebe Snelling and James Cullen to accompany Submotion Orchestra on their “Unplugged” UK tour celebrating the release of the band’s Unplugged Vol. II EP. In May 2024, Prism accompanied London Contemporary Voices as part of Report Presentation of the Infected Blood Inquiry at Westminster Hall. The ensemble most recently performed for Pip Millet’s sold-out performance at Somerset House as part of their Summer Series, with Fraser also writing the string arrangements.

Fraser enjoys a wide variety of remote work from his home studio in south-east London. Previous projects include Lorne Balfe/14th Street Music‘s soundtracks to the Amazon Prime series “The Wheel of Time”, BBC’s “Sherwood”, Britbox’s “Crime”, HBO’s “Pennyworth” and Netflix’s “Man vs. Bee”, “Luther: The Fallen Sun” and appears as a featured soloist on “Life On Our Planet”, directed by Steven Spielberg. He engineered/edited/recorded strings for Burna Boy’s 2021 Grammy performance and the Kingdom Choir’s “Together Again” ft. Jake Isaac and recorded Jon Wygen’s soundtrack for the PBS/BBC Studios “Age of Nature” documentary narrated by Uma Thurman/Anna Friel. Fraser also appears as a featured soloist on Taran Mitchell’s score for Netflix’s “Alexander: The Making Of A God”.

Through Okiem & The Infinity Orchestra, Fraser has toured extensively through Europe for clients such as North Face, and performed/recorded for Burna Boy’s 2019 sell-out Wembley Arena show and his 2021 Grammys performance, for which he was also the remote strings engineer, and his sell-out show at the O2 Arena. Along with Laci Olah, he arranged and recorded the strings for Blue’s “Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word” performances on their 2022 UK Arena tour. He has also worked extensively with the Guildhall Session Orchestra as principal cello since its formation in 2018, performing and recording for numerous projects including OrchestRAM at the Barbican, Illuminated River, Beasts of London, Ah, Ludwig! and silent film accompaniment at the Barbican Cinema.

He is a founding member of the contemporary music group, Ret Frem. Not constrained by genre or style, Ret Frem is committed to the performance and promotion of music of exquisite craft by living composers - whether they are established, emerging or underrepresented. During the COVID-19 lockdown, the group curated an “in isolation” series, commissioning and remotely recording a number of works by composers including Kory Reeder, Christopher Fox, Andy Ingamells, Sophie Stone, Simon Dobson, Liam Mattison, Matt Scott Rogers, Angela Elizabeth Slater, Jenni Hogan, Svante Henryson, Martin Gaughan, Nicholas Hann and Will Handysides. Their recordings of Simon Dobson’s “Unusal(ly) Light” and Liam Mattison’s “In the absence of heather” were subsequently released by Nonclassical on their “I hope this finds you well in these strange times, Vol. 3 + Vol. 4” lockdown compilations. Alongside their performances, they have also conducted a number of educational workshops in schools around London.

Independently, Fraser has recorded for and performed with a large number of artists, bands, music production studios, producers and composers including 14th Street Music, The Alchemy, Alexandra Hamilton-Ayers, Ben Laver, BXFTYS, Chris Davey, Cosima, David Fernandez, Edd Blakeley, Flora Leo, Gemini Trio, Heather McClelland, Isabelle Brown, James Osler, Joe Davies, Joe Donohoe, Jon Wygens, Liam Carey, Maisha, Mark Hamilton, Matt Emery, Matt James Hill, Meg Ella, Mike Patrick, Natalia Tsupryk, Noah Anderson, Nico Casal, Nikki Forova, Okiem, Peter Lewington, Rebecca Dancer, RHODES, Robert T Harvey, Robyn Keen, Roo Panes, Rubod & Stroudinsky, Samana, Sharlene-Monique, Simone Spagnolo, Smoke Fairies, Taz Modi, Thom Robson Timothy Maryon, Tyrone Wright, Vince Pope, Villette and VLMV.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Fraser also began to give more time to writing, mainly composing library music - the most recent release featuring his work can be heard on the album “Sad Souls.1”, published by The Music Supervisors.

Fraser completed his MMus degree at Guildhall School of Music & Drama with Tim Gill after finishing his BMus (Hons) undergraduate degree at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance with Joely Koos. He was awarded the ABRSM Marguerite Swan memorial prize in both 2003 and 2010, and in 2015 he was a finalist in the Vera Kantrovich competition.

Fraser plays a c.1850 Mittenwald cello, a c.1890 Neuner and Hornsteiner cello, and a Yamaha SVC-110 electric cello.