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The English violinist, Rebecca Hirsch, studied with Jaroslav Vanecek at the Royal College of Music in London, winning all the major violin prizes and awarded, in 1984, an English Speaking Union scholarship for study at the Tanglewood Festival.
Rebecca Hirsch gave her debut with the London Sinfonietta at the Barbican playing Strauss' Bougeois Gentilhomme and was then invited to perform Arvo Pärt's Fratres and Tabula Rasa conducted by Paavo Järvi at the South Bank Centre, London. She has appeared as a soloist with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, the BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and regularly leads The London Sinfonietta.
Rebecca Hirsch Among the most gifted of young British violinists, and is regarded as one of Britain’s foremost interpreters of 20th century music, exemplified notably in performances of works by important contemporary Scandinavian composers. She records regularly for Da Capo and Naxos, and two of her recordings were nominated for the Gramophone’s Best Record of the Year Award. For Naxos she has recorded both Rawsthorne Violin Concertos with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Editor’s Choice in Gramophone Magazine’s October 1988 issue, as well as Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto with the same orchestra. Poul Ruders wrote his Second Violin Concerto for her, a work of which she gave the first acclaimed performance and which she recorded for Da Capo in Copenhagen with the Collegium Musicum and Michael Schonwandt. She also gave the world premiere of Bent Sørensen’s violin concerto Sterbende Gärten with the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Tivoli Hall, Copenhagen. The recording which followed for Da Capo won the Nordic Council Music Prize in 1996. She also recorded for Da Capo Hakon Børreson’s Violin Concerto with the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra. In a live broadcast she gave the world premières of Ian Wilson’s Second Violin Concerto at the Cheltenham Festival and of a new Violin Concerto by Per Nørgård, further evidence of her advocacy of new repertoire. She also gave the first performance of Kevin Volans’s Double Violin Concerto. |
