Christian Halstead, 45, who studied at the prestigious Royal College of Music, admitted having nearly seven thousand indecent pictures and movies of youngsters.
He is leader of the Whitehall Orchestra and has also performed with the London Mozart Players and City Chamber Orchestra.
Halstead, of Appleton Road, Blackheath was sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court.
He received twelve months imprisonment, suspended for eighteen months and was placed on an 18-month Community Order.
Halstead must also complete 200 hours community service work and up to thirty days of a Probation Service-ordered rehabilitation activity requirement.
The court also made him subject to a ten-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and he must pay a £140 victim surcharge.
He previously pleaded guilty when he appeared at Bromley Magistrates’ Court to three counts of making indecent images of children on various dates between March 2, 2017 and March 18, 2019.
These were 1482 Category A images, the most serious and involving sexual abuse; 1950 Category B images and 3439 Category C images.
Prosecutor Emek Yagmur told the court on that occasion: “The defendant was arrested in 2017 after reports of internet activity from his premises.
“Police attended and seized a number of items and while under investigation this defendant has used the internet to download more images from facebook; Kick and Tumblr.”
Halstead has no convictions for similar offences.
While at the Royal College of Music Halstead won the Concerto Award, plus other prizes and performed before poet and author Lady Ursula Vaughan-Williams.
He has also performed as a freelance violinist with St. Paul’s Sinfonia, was a founder member of the Southbank Sinfonia and was First Violin with the Abraxas Ensemble.
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