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The Scottish violinsist, Hilary Michael, studied for 3 years with Claire Docherty at St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh. She then went to the Royal Academy of Music to study with Richard Deakin, from where she graduated in 2006 with a 1st class Bachelor of Music degree (with honours). She then returned to the Academy for a 2-year Postgraduate Diploma in Historical Performance, studying the Baroque violin with Pavlo Beznosiuk. Whilst at the RAM she won the Mica Comberti Bach Prize, performed Felix Mendelssohn’s Concerto in D minor for Violin and Strings with the Becket Ensemble and David Watkin, led the RAM Baroque Ensemble and was the winner of the 2008 Early Music Prize. She was also a Leverhulme Chamber Music Fellow (with the group The Rare Theatricall) and was awarded one of the inaugural Leverhulme Orchestral Fellowships.
For the past 9 years Hilary Michael has enjoyed a busy freelance career performing and recording all over the world with groups such as The Academy of Ancient Music, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Orchestre Romantique et Revolutionnaire ((Director: John Eliot Gardiner)), Avison Ensemble, Gabrieli Consort & Players (Director: Paul McCreesh), La Serenissima and Dunedin Consort (Director: John Butt). In 2010 she performed live on BBC Radio 3’s the Early Music Show playing some traditional Scottish tunes on Baroque violin as part of the Brighton Early Music Festival.
Hilary Michael has recently both coached and led The Kellie Consort, a group set up by fellow St Mary’s Music School alumnus Tom Wilkinson as a training ensemble for college students and recent graduates who wish to explore the world of period instrument playing.
Hilary Michael is also a keen jazz player and had tutored on the Richard Michael Jazz Course (formally the Fife Jazz Summer School) for the past 14 years. She has worked alongside Richard Michael and the late Will Michael for Wigmore Hall Education, led worshops on improvisation for Yamaha and most recently for the organisation ‘Making Music’, for whom she and Richard Michael have filmed a series of youtube videos teaching the various stages of how to improvise. She married Tom Oliver on May 1, 2011, and currently lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. |
