Tasmin Little’s Camerata date in Mansfield

Popular violinist Tasmin Little joins Manchester Camerata for its concert in Mansfield on the 17 October 2010

Tasmin Little studied under Pauline Scott at the Yehudi Menuhin School and later at the Guildhall School of Music, coming to prominence as a string section finalist in the 1982 BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. In 1988 she made her professional solo debut with the Hallé Orchestra, and in 1996 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Bradford, where its music centre is named after her. She has now established an international reputation, and has recorded violin concertos by Bruch, Brahms, Sibelius and others, giving some their first recordings – or second, as with Edmund Rubbra’s. She has premiered works, including Stuart MacRae’s violin concerto at the 2001 BBC Proms. Tasmin has played with many of the world’s greatest orchestras in a career that has taken her to every continent of the world. In addition to her regular solo performances, she has play/directed orchestras such as Royal Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, London Mozart Players, English Chamber Orchestra, Norwegian Chamber, European Union Chamber Orchestra and Britten Sinfonia.

In 2007/08 she joined the London Mozart Players as soloist and director in a tour of the UK which also featured her UK conducting debut.

As a concerto player, Tasmin’s performances in the 2009/10 season took her back to the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam where she gave the World Premiere of a violin concerto by Willem Jeths. She returns to the Concertgebouw twice in the 2010/11 Season to perform violin concerti by Loevendie and Prokofiev. Other performances in 2010/11 include concerts in Australia, New Zealand and Slovenia, as well as a Festival at Kings Place, London, entitled “Tasmin Little and Friends: Violin Journeys”.

In 2008, Tasmin made her fifteenth appearance at the BBC Promenade Concerts in a performance of the Concerto for Violin and Horn by Dame Ethyl Smyth. She continues to champion seldom-performed repertoire, and has received critical acclaim as one of the few violinists to have mastered Ligeti’s challenging violin concerto. Her 2003 tour with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle, during which she performed the concerto at the Proms, Berlin Philharmonie, the Salzburg Festival, New York’s Carnegie Hall and Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, received unanimous critical acclaim (‘the technical command was glorious’ ­ The Guardian; ‘very beautiful’ ­ Berliner Morgenpost; ‘a major violin talent’ ­ Philadelphia Inquirer; ‘a formidable soloist’ ­ New York Times). In 2007 she returned to the work with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.

In 2006, Tasmin was Artistic Director of her hugely successful ‘Delius Inspired’ Festival, which was broadcast for an entire week on BBC Radio 3 in July. An exciting range of events, ranging from orchestral concerts and chamber music to films and exhibitions, also reached 800 school children in an ambitious programme designed to widen interest in classical music for young people. She was Artistic Director of Spring Sounds Festival from 2008 until 2010.

Her discography reflects her wide-ranging repertoire and includes twenty-three recordings, ranging from Bruch and Brahms to Karlowicz and Arvo Pärt. In March 2009 she released the disc ‘Partners in Time’, her follow-up to The Naked Violin, and Autumn 2010 sees the release of a major new recording with Chandos of the Elgar violin concerto including a re-creation of a special version of the accompanied cadenza.

Tasmin is an Ambassador for The Prince’s Foundation for Children and the Arts, is a Fellow of the Guildhall of Music and Drama, is President of ESTA (European String Teachers Association), and has received Honorary Degrees from the Universities of Bradford, Leicester, Hertfordshire and City of London.

She plays a 1757 Guadagnini violin and has, on kind loan from the Royal Academy of Music, the ‘Regent’ Stradivarius of 1708.

The concert with Tasmin Little and Manchester Camerata forms part of the Palace Theatre Mansfield’s centenery celebrations.  Andrew Tucker spoke to Manchester Camerata about the history of the venue and what’s planned in this birthday year.

Details of the A Music Celebration with Tasmin Little in Mansfield

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