Biography

Described as a ‘remarkable talent’ for her performance of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with Tasmin Little and the European Union Chamber Orchestra, violist Rosalind Ventris performs as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the UK and abroad. In 2011/2012 she performed at the Purcell Room, Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Barbican, Bridgewater Hall, and in Austria, Canada and the Netherlands. 2012/2013 appearances include solo recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Het Concertgebouw, Aldeburgh Festival, the Slovak Philharmonic and St Martin in the Fields. Last year Rosalind was privileged to give the world premieres of two new compositions by Edwin Roxburgh: the Monologue for solo viola (Royal Festival Hall, London), and the Sonata for Viola and Piano (Purcell Room, London). Both pieces were written for her and commissioned by David Takeno. Last October Rosalind also gave the world premiere further new work Ricercare with pianist Lara Dodds-Eden at their evening Kirckman Concert Society recital at the Wigmore Hall. For more details about Rosalind’s future concerts please click here.

At the age of 17, Rosalind received the Gwynne Edwards Memorial Prize (for the most promising British entrant), and the EUCO Prize at the 2006 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition. She made her concerto debut at St.John’s Smith Square in 2007, and has since frequently appeared as a concerto soloist, performing works including Bartok’s Viola Concerto, Bruch’s Double Concerto with Tom Gould, and the viola concerti by York Bowen, Walton, Bartok, and Telemann. A keen chamber musician, Rosalind has played with ensembles such as the Dante and Endellion String Quartets, and taken part in the Open Chamber Music Sessions at Prussia Cove. This summer Rosalind appeared at the Salzburg Festival in the IMS Prussia Cove 40th Anniversary Celebrations/Sándor Végh Centenar, in a group led by Gerhard Schultz of the Alban Berg String Quartet.

Rosalind has studied with David Takeno since 2006, and was previously a pupil of Ian Jewel (Purcell School of Music) and Erika Klemperer (Violin – Junior Department of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.)  She read Music at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, winning all the University’s prizes for musical performance, including the Nigel Brown Prize (2008). Rosalind was awarded a full scholarship for her Masters at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where she won the School’s Max and Peggy Morgan Award (2010) and was a Fellow from 2011/2012. During her studies and Fellowship at the Guildhall she received awards from the Countess of Munster Trust, Martin Musical Scholarship Fund and the Hattori Foundation, and was a Leverhulme, Worshipful Company of Drapers, Brian George Coker, and Stanley Picker Trust Scholar. Rosalind has participated in masterclasses with Roberto Diaz, Steve Dann, Ferenc Rados, Thomas Riebl, Hartmut Rohde, Barbara Westphal, and Tabea Zimmerman. As a duo with pianist Lara Dodds-Eden she has taken classes with Menahem Pressler at the Britten-Pears Young Artists Programme in Aldeburgh and with Steven Isserlis and Rita Wagner at IMS Prussia Cove. Rosalind received an English Speaking Union scholarship to study at the Banff Centre last summer.

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