Lennox Mackenzie was born in Aberdeen, Scotland and started to play the violin aged six. In 1971 he won the ABRSM scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music under Ralph Holmes. Whilst there he won many prizes including the Marjorie Hayward Prize for Excellence in Recital Diploma and the Macklin Bursary which assisted him in buying a Dom Nicolo Amati violin. It was at that time he became a founder member of the Arditti String Quartet.
He joined the London Symphony Orchestra in 1980 as Principal 1st Violin and became Sub Leader in 1985, affording him the opportunity of occasionally leading the orchestra under the baton of some of the LSO’s foremost conductors including Claudio Abbado, Michael Tilson Thomas, Andre Previn, Valery Gergiev, Lorin Maazel and Pierre Boulez. Lennox served as Chairman of the LSO for a four year period in the 80/90s and again between 2004 and 2016.