Course Director North

LOUISE LANSDOWN

Louise Lansdown has been a full-time viola and chamber music tutor at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester since 2001, and holds part-time teaching positions at the University of Manchester and Junior RNCM.  She has been involved with Pro Corda, a school for gifted young string players and pianists, held at Leiston Abbey in Suffolk, since 1999, teaching on the Intermediate, North and Junior Courses, and Directing the former since 2005. From 2009 Louise will be directing both the Pro Corda Senior and North Courses. Louise is an Associated Board Examiner (ABRSM) and has been invited as an external examiner for the University of Manchester and Trinity College of Music, London. Louise has delivered papers at various musicological conferences in the UK, South Africa and Australia. She has also attended the International Viola Congresses in Glasgow, Iceland, Kronberg, Australia,

Arizona (2008) and plans to attend the 37th International Viola Congress in 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 has recently completed a PhD at the University of Manchester on the ‘Influences on the young Paul Hindemith’. Supported by the RNCM, she has travelled frequently 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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