Biography

Tamsin Waley-Cohen began her 2010 season with a solo violin recital in the Southbank centre, opening the Park Lane Group series, to high critical acclaim. Described recently by the Guardian as a performer of "fearless intensity" and by the Times as a violinist who "held us rapt in daring and undaunted performances", she performs as a soloist with orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of St John's, London Concert Orchestra and London Chamber Orchestra, and under conductors including Andrew Litton, Jose Serebrier, Shlomo Mintz, Nicolae Moldoveanu, and Achim Holub. She has played at Cadogan Hall, Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Barbican, Liszt Academy Hall, Budapest and in venues across the UK and Europe.

In demand as a recitalist, she also regularly plays with cellist Gemma Rosefield, and has worked with artists such as Andreas Haefliger and Anssi Kartonnen. She has premiered works this season written by composers including Torsten Rasch and Richard Causton. She is also an avid chamber musician which has led to her forming the Honeymead Ensemble, which in its first four years has included Adrian Brendel, Guy Ben-Ziony, Leon McCauley, Thomas Carroll, and Sarah-Jane Bradley. She has performed in numerous festivals, including Cheltenham, Academia San Felice, Florence Chamber Music, The Red Violin, The Two Moors, Stift and Presteigne and last summer made her American debut playing Mendelssohn Concerto in the Bowdoin Festival.

Next season will see performances at Wigmore Hall and King's Place in London, concertos with the RPO and Brighton Philharmonic, as well as concerto and chamber music concerts in the US, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Holland. She will also premiere a new work for violin and string orchestra by Huw Watkins. Tamsin was born in London in 1986. She became a Foundation Scholar at the Royal College of Music where her professor was Itzhak Rashkovsky. At the RCM she won all available awards, including, twice, the concerto competition, and was their String Player of the Year. Numerous competition successes include winning the 2005 Royal Overseas League String Prize, and the 2007 J&A Beare Bach competition.

Tamsin has been a regular participant at the International Musicians' Seminar at Prussia Cove since she was 16, where she has worked with distinguished musicians including Lorand Fenyves, Andras Keller, Martin Lovett, Mark Padmore and Gerhard Schulz. She has also participated in master classes given by Ida Haendel, Igor Ozim, and Ruggiero Ricci, the latter describing her as "the most exceptionally gifted young violinist I have ever encountered."

Since early 2007 she has played the 1721 ex-Fenyves Stradivarius violin.