‘I studied at the Royal College of Music with Rodney Friend and Yossi Zivoni and began freelancing in London in my third year, working with a variety of both chamber and symphony orchestras. The pace of London orchestral work is fast, with a high repertoire turnover and sometimes limited rehearsal time, so it was an exhilarating first few years experiencing many of the great orchestral pieces for the first time.
I started the violin a little later than some – I was nine – after going to an open day at the Yehudi Menuhin school, which is close to where I grew up. I already played the piano and was very absorbed in music, so my parents decided it might be interesting to go along. During the day, a boy the same age as me performed a piece on the violin and I was mesmerised at how beautiful the sound was. I started learning soon afterwards, and the piano quickly became a bit obsolete!
Growing up, I never had any musical idols as such – my family aren’t musicians, although my dad played in quite a prominent trad jazz band in the early sixties. We had quite a mixture of music at home so I always listened to pop and Motown as much as classical! I sang a lot as well, so I enjoyed listening to choral music, and even now I think there is something very captivating about hearing a group of people singing together and making this particular sound which is so unique to us as humans.
As a teenager I was intrigued by the idea of a career in a symphony orchestra and always wondered what it would be like to be one of the musicians. And here I am!’
