British-American violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen is known for her visceral and deeply expressive performances in repertoire spanning six centuries. With musical storytelling central to her approach, she has gained a reputation for her “undeniably-fabulous playing” (Classical Source) and poetic performances that go straight to the heart. In addition to concerts with the Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Hallé, Liverpool Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, Royal Northern Sinfonia and BBC orchestras, amongst others, she has twice been associate artist with the Orchestra of the Swan and worked with conductors including Andrew Litton, Vasily Petrenko, Ben Gernon, Ryan Bancroft and Tamás Vásáry.

Her duo partners include James Baillieu, Huw Watkins, Cordelia Williams and George Fu. She is thrilled to be a Signum Classics Artist, for whom she has recorded over 10 albums to great critical acclaim “her interpretation is technically beyond reproach and musically imaginative” (Gramophone). With her sister, composer Freya Waley-Cohen, and architects Finbarr O’Dempsey and Andrew Skulina, she held an Open Space residency at Aldeburgh, culminating in the 2017 premiere of Permutations at the Aldeburgh Festival, an interactive performance artwork synthesising music and architecture. Her love of chamber music led her to start the Honeymead Festival, now in its 17th year, from which all proceeds go to support local charities.

Her interest in working with living composers and the music of today has led to premieres of works written for her by composers including Oliver Knussen, Huw Watkins, Dobrinka Tabakova, Freya Waley-Cohen, Richard Causton, Joseph Phibbs, Richard Blackford, and Deborah Pritchard amongst others. Upcoming projects include premiering new works by Erkki-Sven Tüür, Misha Mullov-Abbado and Gavin Higgins at festivals and venues including the Aldeburgh Festival, Lammermuir Festival, the Two Moors Festival and Wigmore Hall, as well as celebrating 40 years of Kurtag’s ‘Kafka Fragments’ with a number of performances with soprano Claire Booth. She will also be joining Manchester Camerata in September for a world premiere a new concerto by Nick Martin, inspired by the work of sculptor Dame Barbara Hepworth.

She was the UK recipient of the ECHO Rising Stars Awards, touring all the major concert halls of Europe. She has also toured Japan, China and New Zealand and made her North American New York, San Francisco and Washington debuts. She was a founding member of the Albion string quartet, and appeared regularly with them at venues including Wigmore Hall, Aldeburgh Festival, and the Concertgebouw.

She is Artistic Director of the Two Moors Festival and has previously been Artistic Director of the Music Series at the Tricycle Theatre, London, and the Bargello festival in Florence. She studied at the Royal College of Music and her teachers included Itzhak Rashkovsky, Ruggiero Ricci and András Keller.

The Czech Philharmonic gave its first concert – an all Dvořák programme which included the world première of his Biblical Songs, Nos. 1-5 conducted by the composer himself - in the famed Rudolfinum Hall on 4 January 1896. Acknowledged for its definitive interpretations of Czech composers, whose music the Czech Philharmonic has championed since its formation, the Orchestra is also recognised for the special relationship it has to the music of Brahms and Tchaikovsky - friends of Dvořák - and to Mahler, who gave the world première of his Symphony No. 7 with the Orchestra in 1908.
Throughout the Orchestra’s history, two features have remained at its core: its championing of Czech composers and its belief in music’s power to change lives. Defined from its inauguration as ‘an organisation for the enhancement of musical art in Prague, and a pension organisation for the members of the National Theatre Orchestra in Prague, its widows and orphans’, the proceeds from the four concerts that it performed each year helped to support members of the orchestra who could no longer play and the immediate family of deceased musicians.
The philosophy continues today, and is equally vibrant. In addition to a Orchestral Academy, a comprehensive education strategy engages with more than 400 schools bringing all ages to the Rudolfinum – some travelling as many as four hours - to hear concerts and participate in masterclasses. An inspirational music and song programme for the extensive Romany communities within the Czech Republic and Slovakia has helped many socially excluded families to find a voice.
Mahler was not the first and only non-Czech composer to conduct the Czech Philharmonic. Edward Grieg conducted the Orchestra in 1906; Stravinsky performed his Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra under Václav Talich in 1930; Leonard Bernstein conducted the European première of Aaron Copland’s Symphony No. 3 at the Prague Spring in 1947; Arthur Honegger conducted a concert of his own music in 1949; Darius Milhaud gave the première of his Music for Prague at the Prague Spring Festival in 1966; and, in 1996, Krzysztof Penderecki conducted the première of his Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra.
Their names are joined by the many luminaries who have collaborated with the Orchestra over the years: Martha Argerich, Claudio Arrau, Evgeny Kissin, Erich Kleiber, Leonid Kogan, Erich Leinsdorf, Lovro von Matačić, Ivan Moravec, Yevgeny Mravinsky, David Oistrakh, Antonio Pedrotti, Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Gennady Roszhdestvensky, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Georg Szell, Henryk Szeryng, Bruno Walter and Alexander Zemlinsky.