Lily Harwood

Lily Harwood

Key Facts

Biography

Lily Harwood is a London-born violinist currently studying with Radu Blidar at the Royal College of Music, where she is a Musicians’ Company Lambert Scholar. 

 

As a soloist, Lily has given recitals in venues across the UK, Italy and Switzerland, including the Royal Albert Hall’s Elgar Room, San Remo Cathedral and Lauderdale House. She has also appeared as a soloist at The Highgate Festival performing Vivaldi’s ‘Summer’ from The Four Seasons, with the Highgate String Collective. Lily has performed in solo masterclasses with Joel Smirnoff, the former leader of the Juilliard Quartet, Remus Azoitei, Benjamin Nabarro and Fionnuala Hunt. 

 

Lily previously studied at the Purcell School for Young Musicians, where she led the Symphony Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank. She is also an alumna of the Royal College of Music Junior Department, where she led the Sinfonia, Symphony, and Chamber Orchestras, including a performance at the Royal Albert Hall for the Primary Proms. As Principle 2nd Violin of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, she performed at the BBC Proms and Young Euro Classic Festival in The Konzerthaus Berlin, with broadcasted performances on BBC Radio 3 and BBC 4.

 

As a chamber musician, Lily’s piano quintet performed a recital in South Hill Park Arts Centre, and was due to perform Brahms’s Piano Quintet at Wigmore Hall in April 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic meant the hall’s temporary closure. More recently, she performed Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio in the RCM’s annual FestivALL, a chamber music diversity festival which explores and celebrates compositions by under-represented composers. Lily has performed in chamber music masterclasses with Mats Zetterqvist, and members of the Rosamunde Trio, Harlem Quartet and Solem Quartet. She is also the founder and director of the Juno Ensemble, an unconducted string ensemble of conservatoire musicians. 

 

As an avid orchestral musician, Lily has played in many prestigious venues around the UK, such as the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, The Barbican Centre, Cadogan Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Snape Maltings Concert Hall and St Johns Smith Square, working with renowned conductors such as Sir Mark Elder, Sir Antonio Pappano, Thomas Zehetmair, Sir George Benjamin, and Mark Wigglesworth, as well as soloists such as Steven Isserlis, Nicola Benedetti, Alina Pogostkina and Tamara Stefanovich.

 

 

Page Updated: May 2022

Musicians’ Company Award: Lambert Scholarship 2021

Photo Credit: Tanith Carey