Olivia Jago

The last year has been extremely busy both inside and outside of my Master of Music course at the Royal Northern College of Music. Within the college, I have participated in numerous orchestral projects including the RNCM Symphony Orchestra project at the Bridgewater Hall, the Cantiere Festival in Montepulciano in Italy and side-by-side projects with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Manchester Camerata. As a soloist, I reached the final of the RNCM Concerto Competition performing Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 and participated in masterclasses with renowned pedagogue Mauricio Fuchs and with my teacher Yair Kless on a course in Sindelfingen, Germany. My string quartet also blossomed this year being invited onto the college’s external engagements list which allowed us to be booked professionally for numerous recitals around the North West.

Outside of college I have been able to begin establishing myself as a freelance orchestral violinist working with orchestras such as Manchester Camerata and Sinfonia Cymru. Highlights have included headlining the Isle of Wight festival with Manchester Camerata and travelling to Abu Dhabi for a performance of Tosca with Sinfonia Cymru and Sir Bryn Terfel. Last week I reached the final of the Blue Riband Competition at the National Eisteddfod in Llanrwst, performing live on S4C.

While I do not yet know my overall result, I have gained a wealth of experience from my time at RNCM and have been able to begin building a body of work that I can continue as a graduate. I am now moving to London to begin a PGCEi in Group Instrumental Teaching with London Music Masters. I would love to be able to balance teaching and performance work and I hope this will give me the skills to do this successfully. In its inaugural year, the course has also been fully subsidised and still gives me the freedom to continue my freelance work. I am really looking forward to this next step and to where my career will now be moving. I wish to thank the James Pantyfedwen Trust for their extremely generous support without which I would not have been able to complete my