Biography

British violinist Sarah Sew is winner of the prestigious Emanuel Hurwitz Award from the Philharmonia Orchestra/Martin Musical Scholarship Fund. She has also won First Prize in the Wessex String Prize, Central England Ensemble Concerto Competition and the D M Lloyd Prize at the Royal Academy of Music. Formerly a student of the late Howard Davis, she graduated from the Bachelor's Programme at the RAM with First Class Honours and the Lesley Alexander Award for excellence in violin playing. Sarah's current studies with Maurice Hasson on the Master's Programme have been made possible through awards from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Countess of Munster Musical Trust and South Square Trust. Sarah has benefited from playing in the master classes of Thomas Brandis, Tasmin Little, Aleksander Pavlovic and Sylvia Rosenberg. She has also received chamber music master classes from the Alberni Quartet, the Medici Quartet, the Skampa Quartet, the Vanbrugh Quartet and the Wihan Quartet. Additionally, she received a full scholarship to attend the Zermatt Festival Academy 2008 in Switzerland where she studied chamber music with the Scharoun Ensemble from the Berlin Philharmonic. Sarah has been a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra since 2006 and has recently been selected for the London Symphony Orchestra String Experience Scheme 2008/09. She is leader of the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra and also plays with the London Chamber Orchestra and elite Royal Academy Soloists. Sarah's orchestral work has enabled her to tour internationally, including performances at the BBC Proms; Musikverein, Vienna; National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing; Berlin Konzerthaus; Tonhalle, Zurich; Seoul Arts Centre; and Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. She has played under many eminent conductors, notably, Sir Colin Davis, Cristoph von Dohnanyi, Vladimir Ashkenazy, John Adams, Herbert Blomstedt, Oliver Knussen, Thierry Fischer, Vasily Petrenko and Trevor Pinnock. Sarah plays a 1780 Joseph Gagliano, kindly on loan to her from the Royal Academy of Music.