Associate Artist
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, Orchestra of the Swan, and Brighton Philharmonic, 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, her partners include Huw Watkins and Simon Crawford-Philips, she also regularly plays with cellist Gemma Rosefield, and has worked with artists such as Andreas Haefliger, Heinz Holliger and Anssi Kartonnen. She has premiered works 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 two years ago made her American debut playing Mendelssohn Concerto in the Bowdoin Festival.
This season will see performances at Wigmore Hall and King’s Place in London,
as well as concerto and chamber music concerts in Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Holland, Germany, and Belgium. 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.”
From 2011 she has been appointed the Artistic Director of London’s Tricycle Theatre’s Chamber Music Series, and of Music at the Bargello chamber music festival in Florence, Italy.
Meet Tamsin Waley-Cohen
February 2012
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself – where you grew up, where you live now, and your family.
I grew up in London, where I still live. My family are involved in the arts in different ways, my mother’s a sculptor, my father is involved with the theatre and my younger sister, Freya, is also a musician – a composer.
What instrument did you learn first, and where did you train?
I learned the violin first, from the age of 3. I remember asking and asking for lessons, and the story, although I don’t remember this, is that at the age of 2 I saw a televised Prom concert and became obsessed with the violin. However i do remember my first lesson very well. The teacher was quite strict, but it was always a lot of fun, at that age it has to be.
I made up my mind very early in life that i wanted to become a soloist and a chamber musician. So when it came to pursuing my further education and career i went to the Royal College of Music where I became a Foundation Scholar. This is where I won all available awards, including, twice, the concerto competition, and I was their String Player of the Year.
From the age of 16 I have also been a regular participant at the International Musicians’ Seminar at Prussia Cove and participated in master classes by Ida Haendel, Igor Ozim, and Ruggiero Ricci.
I have a ex-Fenyves 1721 Stradivarius violin which I have been playing since 2007. It’s a very temperamental instrument and took me quite a long time to learn how to play, but now I think we have got to know each other.
What was the appeal of the violin and can you play anything else?
I played the piano for about 10 years, but the violin was always my first love. I think it is the sound, so like human voice, which did and still does hold my fascination, for the beauty and expressive possibilities, and its emotional power.
The best feeling is on stage when one senses a real connection with ones fellow musicians and the audience. It’s that sense of a joint journey and experience created in that moment by such a rare instrument of which I’m incredibly proud to be a part of.
Tamsin Waley-Cohen will be joining Orchestra of the Swan at our next concert in the impressive Cadogan Hall in London on Wednesday 29th February. Details and tickets can be found on our website www.orchestraoftheswan.org or from the box office on 020 7730 4500.