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Simone Lamsma
Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma is rapidly establishing herself as one of the world’s top violinists, a much sought after soloist and recitalist performing with leading orchestras and conductors worldwide. In the 2009/10 season, engagement highlights in Europe included performances with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic (Britten/van Zweden), Rotterdam Philharmonic (Ravel Tzigane & Massenet Meditation/Nezet-Seguin), Royal Flemish Philharmonic (Britten/Watkins), Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (Shostakovich 1/Tortelier), Sinfonia Rotterdam (Mozart No. 5/van Alphen), Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra (play/direct Vivaldi’s Four Seasons). In the USA, she made her debut with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra and performed for the second time with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (Britten/van Zweden). She also performed recitals in the Netherlands and for the prestigious Rio de Janeiro Sala Cecilia series (taking over a cancellation from Vadim Repin) with Robert Kulek and Valentina Lisitsa as chamber music partners. Other highlights included national broadcasts on Dutch television of her performance featuring Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No.1 with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic conducted by Jaap van Zweden as well as a 40-minute documentary about Ms Lamsma’s life as a musician produced by NPS (Dutch national television).
Future engagements include debuts with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Walton/Luisi), Orchestra Suisse Romande (Shostakovich 1/ Janowski), Orchestre Nationale de France (Bernstein Serenade/van Zweden), Lucerne Symphony (Dvorak and Khachaturian/Gaffigan), National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Beethoven/Tortelier), St Louis Symphony (Shostakovich 1/van Zweden), Seoul Philharmonic (Shostakovich 1/Gaffigan), Utah Symphony (Mendelssohn/Thierry Fischer) and Sao Paolo Symphony (Shostakovich 1/Tortelier). Return invitations include the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic (Szymanowski/Segerstam), Royal Flemish Philharmonic (Beethoven/van Zweden), Bournemouth Symphony (Elgar/Hill), Dallas Symphony (Walton/van Zweden), Rotterdam Philharmonic (Sibelius/Valcuha) and the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra. She will also be performing as a recitalist, among her invitations is a prestigious recital with live radio broadcast in the Main Hall of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam in May 2011.
Ms Lamsma began playing the violin at the age of five, and moved to the UK aged 11 to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School with Professor Hu Kun and the Royal Academy of Music with Professor Maurice Hasson. As the youngest student ever to enter the Royal Academy of Music’s Bachelor of Music programme, Ms Lamsma graduated from the Royal Academy aged 19 with first class honours, and awarded with the prestigious ‘HRH Princess Alice’s Prize’ for exemplary studentship, the ‘Louise Child Prize’ for the highest achievement of the Bmus Graduands and the ‘Roth Prize’ for the best violin exam result.
Enormously successful in international violin competitions, Ms Lamsma won the Silver Medal in the prestigious International Violin Competition of Indianapolis (2006), First Prize in the China International Violin Competition (2005) and First Prize in the Benjamin Britten International Violin Competition (2004). About Ms Lamsma’s performance of the Britten Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis, the London Times reviewed: “…the young Dutch player displayed a genuinely winning combination of musicality and technical command.” Among many other awards, scholarships and laureate prizes, Ms Lamsma also won the First Prize in the Dutch National Violin Competition 2003 and in 2007 and 2010 was nominated for a Dutch VSCD Classical Music Prize in the category ‘New Generation Musicians’, which is a nomination awarded by the directions of the main Dutch concert halls to artists that have made remarkable and valuable contributions to the Dutch classical music scene.
In 2006 Ms Lamsma’s debut recital disc for the Naxos label, featuring works by Edward Elgar, was released to great critical acclaim, receiving brilliant reviews in among others Strad Magazine (“…[Simone Lamsma] has a seriously fine technique and impeccable intonation, and puts these to use with mature musical intelligence…”) and a 5 star review in the Telegraph UK (“…[Simone Lamsma] brings rich tone and immense quality to Elgar’s sonata…”). The CD was “Classic FM’s Best Buy” in September 2006 and was featured as “Instrumental and Chamber Disc of the Month” in Classic FM Magazine. Ms Lamsma’s second disc for Naxos, a recording of violin concertos by Louis Spohr also received great critical acclaim: " Lamsma plays Spohr with authority - with technical aplomb and a silken, slender sound that recall Heifetz's. She sparkles in the higher registers....and sounds throaty in the lower ones; such unobtrusive muscularity, coupled with silvery violinistic solidity, makes her a credible exponent of Spohr's music. " Fanfare July/August 2009.
Ms Lamsma plays the “ex Chanot-Chardon” Stradivarius (labelled Cremona 1718), on generous loan to her by an anonymous benefactor.
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Future engagements include debuts with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Walton/Luisi), Orchestra Suisse Romande (Shostakovich 1/ Janowski), Orchestre Nationale de France (Bernstein Serenade/van Zweden), Lucerne Symphony (Dvorak and Khachaturian/Gaffigan), National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Beethoven/Tortelier), St Louis Symphony (Shostakovich 1/van Zweden), Seoul Philharmonic (Shostakovich 1/Gaffigan), Utah Symphony (Mendelssohn/Thierry Fischer) and Sao Paolo Symphony (Shostakovich 1/Tortelier). Return invitations include the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic (Szymanowski/Segerstam), Royal Flemish Philharmonic (Beethoven/van Zweden), Bournemouth Symphony (Elgar/Hill), Dallas Symphony (Walton/van Zweden), Rotterdam Philharmonic (Sibelius/Valcuha) and the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra. She will also be performing as a recitalist, among her invitations is a prestigious recital with live radio broadcast in the Main Hall of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam in May 2011.
Ms Lamsma began playing the violin at the age of five, and moved to the UK aged 11 to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School with Professor Hu Kun and the Royal Academy of Music with Professor Maurice Hasson. As the youngest student ever to enter the Royal Academy of Music’s Bachelor of Music programme, Ms Lamsma graduated from the Royal Academy aged 19 with first class honours, and awarded with the prestigious ‘HRH Princess Alice’s Prize’ for exemplary studentship, the ‘Louise Child Prize’ for the highest achievement of the Bmus Graduands and the ‘Roth Prize’ for the best violin exam result.
Enormously successful in international violin competitions, Ms Lamsma won the Silver Medal in the prestigious International Violin Competition of Indianapolis (2006), First Prize in the China International Violin Competition (2005) and First Prize in the Benjamin Britten International Violin Competition (2004). About Ms Lamsma’s performance of the Britten Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis, the London Times reviewed: “…the young Dutch player displayed a genuinely winning combination of musicality and technical command.” Among many other awards, scholarships and laureate prizes, Ms Lamsma also won the First Prize in the Dutch National Violin Competition 2003 and in 2007 and 2010 was nominated for a Dutch VSCD Classical Music Prize in the category ‘New Generation Musicians’, which is a nomination awarded by the directions of the main Dutch concert halls to artists that have made remarkable and valuable contributions to the Dutch classical music scene.
In 2006 Ms Lamsma’s debut recital disc for the Naxos label, featuring works by Edward Elgar, was released to great critical acclaim, receiving brilliant reviews in among others Strad Magazine (“…[Simone Lamsma] has a seriously fine technique and impeccable intonation, and puts these to use with mature musical intelligence…”) and a 5 star review in the Telegraph UK (“…[Simone Lamsma] brings rich tone and immense quality to Elgar’s sonata…”). The CD was “Classic FM’s Best Buy” in September 2006 and was featured as “Instrumental and Chamber Disc of the Month” in Classic FM Magazine. Ms Lamsma’s second disc for Naxos, a recording of violin concertos by Louis Spohr also received great critical acclaim: " Lamsma plays Spohr with authority - with technical aplomb and a silken, slender sound that recall Heifetz's. She sparkles in the higher registers....and sounds throaty in the lower ones; such unobtrusive muscularity, coupled with silvery violinistic solidity, makes her a credible exponent of Spohr's music. " Fanfare July/August 2009.
Ms Lamsma plays the “ex Chanot-Chardon” Stradivarius (labelled Cremona 1718), on generous loan to her by an anonymous benefactor.