I first asked to play the violin after seeing a busker in the Lanes in Brighton, where I grew up. Soon after that group lessons were offered at my school, and I started learning in a class of six. Group lessons are sometimes looked down upon, but I loved learning with my friends for a year before studying with Helen Brown who taught me throughout my childhood. Playing music alongside my friends felt very special and made me so excited to continue. I was honoured to study with Yossi Zivoni during my undergraduate and I continued my studies with Krzysztof Smetana at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where I held a scholarship. I feel so indebted to my incredible teachers and mentors who have supported and guided me throughout my musical life. I am grateful to receive scholarships from the Zetland Foundation, Westdene Trust, RMNEF, and to play on a 1740 Calcanius violin kindly awarded to me by the Harrison Frank Family Foundation.
I first asked to play the violin after seeing a busker in the Lanes in Brighton, where I grew up. Soon after that group lessons were offered at my school, and I started learning in a class of six. Group lessons are sometimes looked down upon, but I loved learning with my friends for a year before studying with Helen Brown who taught me throughout my childhood. Playing music alongside my friends felt very special and made me so excited to continue. I was honoured to study with Yossi Zivoni during my undergraduate and I continued my studies with Krzysztof Smetana at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where I held a scholarship. I feel so indebted to my incredible teachers and mentors who have supported and guided me throughout my musical life. I am grateful to receive scholarships from the Zetland Foundation, Westdene Trust, RMNEF, and to play on a 1740 Calcanius violin kindly awarded to me by the Harrison Frank Family Foundation.
Orchestral playing has always played a central and important role in my musical life. I work across a number of orchestras including the Halle, BBC Philharmonic and Manchester Camerata, as well as leading the Guildhall Symphony Orchestra during my time there. I feel very passionately about music education, and I teach across a number of musical settings, working with both children and adults and helping them develop their musical expression and identity.
I have been invited to perform as a soloist in masterclasses with Boris Belkin and Mauricio Fuks, amongst others. Chamber music is an incredibly important part of my musical life, and I enjoy working across a number of different ensembles of like-minded musicians who I admire. I am a founding member of the Larisa Trio, with whom I have performed for the past 6 years. Over the past year my trio were invited to premiere a new arrangement of
Verklarte Nacht at the Schoenberg Centre in Vienna, perform as part of the Festival dei Giovani musicisti europei in Italy, and we look forward to embarking on a nationwide wide tour of our original piece, Discopia (a collaboration between the trio, composer Devon Bonelli, and contemporary dance company, Excessive Human Collective). Finding new avenues to explore in my work as a violinist is so important to me. Most of the work that fulfils me the most are the projects I find most difficult, and that have no clear trajectory. This forces me to reconsider my creative identity and I think I need that to continue to feel inspired and motivated.
EDUCATION
Guildhall School of Music & Drama
London, UK
Royal Northern College of Music
Manchester, UK
QUICKFIRE QUESTIONS
Where's your favourite place to listen to music and why?
I love listening to music on the beach when I'm back home in Brighton. There's a special kind of day when the sea is unbelievably still, the sky is clear, and everything looks kind of pastel coloured in the evening. Wandering down to the sea on days like this and listening to something on the quieter end of the beach is really special.
What do you do with your time when you're not playing music?
I love using an evening to try and cook something new. I've just moved to Bethnal Green
and there are so many little Vietnamese supermarkets around that I'm loving looking around. I'm a bit out of my depth and it can sometimes end in me presenting a very weird meal to my housemates, but the process is fun.
