I first started off learning violin when I was five. However, it wasn’t until I switched to viola that I began to take music more seriously. I saw the Doric Quartet play Schubert's Death and the Maiden and the performance completely took me aback. It was the first time I had seen a string quartet perform and I was amazed by the sounds the four instruments quartet could make and how together they played. I looked them up online after the concert and saw that two of the members had met on the Pro Corda chamber music course. I immediately applied. Through Pro Corda I met my current teacher Louise Lansdown and ever since then have wanted to play for a career.
I have just finished my undergraduate degree at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. At college, I was lucky enough to take part in both the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Royal Ballet schemes. Being able to rehearse with a professional ensemble, see the speed at which they work and how well they played together was a great experience. At college I also played with the contemporary music ensemble Thallein, including a tour to play at the Beijing Modern Music Festival.
For the last three years I have been heavily involved in the ARCO project at the conservatoire. The project delivers one-to-one and chamber lessons to 24 children in Soweto, South Africa via Skype. The last two summers I have travelled to South Africa to help run the week long ARCO festival with orchestra, chamber music and one-to-one lessons. In November 2017 the first ARCO exchange took place with three students coming to the UK for two weeks to take part in masterclasses, workshops and concerts. Working on the project has been fantastic and has shown me how music can connect people from completely different parts of the world.
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire
Birmingham, UK
What do you love about classical music?
How even if you don’t speak the same language as someone you can to communicate together through music. I love the number of people from different countries that playing music has enabled me to meet.
What do you think concerts of the future should look like?
More can be done with experimenting with the spaces where classical music is performed, bringing it out of the concert hall and making it more accessible to the general public. I think that live streaming has some the biggest potential to connect classical music to new audiences.
