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She has also attended the International Viola Congresses
in Glasgow, Iceland, Kronberg, Australia and plans to
attend the congresses in Arizona (2008) and South Africa
(2009). Louise is the Artistic director of the annual
RNCM Viola Day!
Louise’s greatest musical influences have been Jack de
Wet, Eric Rycroft, Lamar Crowson, Alan George, Thomas
Riebl, Chris Rowland, Gabor Takacs-Nagy, members of the
Ysaye Quartet and Milan Skampa. She holds a B. Mus, B.
Mus (Hons) (with distinction in Performance) and M. Mus
from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. In
1998 Louise was awarded the ABRSM Overseas Scholarship
to study at the Royal Northern College of Music. She
graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Performance in
1999, Master of Music in Performance and Teacher’s
Licentiate in 2000, all with Distinction in
Performance. In 2000 she was also awarded a Junior
Fellowship in Chamber Music at the RNCM along with the
Rachel Godlee Prize for Viola. Louise was a member of
the Yeomans Quartet at the RNCM from 1998-2001, giving
recitals around the UK, Europe and South Africa, as well
as recording Haydn and Sullivan quartets. She has been
closely involved with the annual RNCM Chamber Music
Festivals, founded by the late Dr. Christopher Rowland
in 1999, performing and helping to oversee performances
of the complete chamber music of Haydn, Beethoven,
Schubert, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Shostakovich, 20th
century quartets and many more. She is an avid chamber
musician and performs in every spare moment!
Louise is in the final stages of her PhD at the
University of Manchester on the ‘Influences on the young
Paul Hindemith’. Supported by the RNCM, she frequently
travels to the Hindemith Institute in Frankfurt to
conduct research for her dissertation. She plays on a
French instrument made around 1750, previously belonging
to Cecil Aronowitz (first Head of Strings at the RNCM),
who she is planning to write a biography on. She has
delivered a paper on the life and career of Cecil
Aronowitz at the 2007 International Viola Congress held
in Adelaide and was a member of the jury for the Fifth
Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition 2007.
Louise is the founder and President of the English Viola
Society, started in September 2007.
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