Laura Rickard

Praised for her “total technical security and enormous sensitivity” (Público), British violinist Laura Rickard has established a multifaceted international career as a soloist, chamber musician, festival director and passionate teacher. Her performances have taken her to the Royal Festival Hall, Purcell Room, Wigmore Hall and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. She has toured extensively across Europe, Asia, Australia, Mexico and the USA, and her performances have been featured on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM and NBC. She was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2022 in recognition of her significant contribution to the music profession.

Recent solo highlights have included directing a cycle of the Mozart Violin Concertos from the violin and performing Vasks Lonely Angel at HearAndNow Festival. A passionate advocate of music of our time, she has collaborated closely with composers including Martin Butler, Cydonie Banting, Robert Peate and Michael Zev Gordon.

Laura is a founding member of the Mila Piano Trio and the Goethe String Quartet, with whom she performs extensively in the UK and internationally. Recent highlights have included residencies at Yellow Barn, Vermont and the Presteigne Festival, alongside premieres of music by Eleanor Alberga, Reinaldo Moya, Eun-young Lee and William Cooper.

In 2018 Laura founded Romsey Chamber Music Festival, which she continues to lead as Artistic Director. Based in her home town of Romsey, the festival has developed into an ambitious annual celebration of chamber music and new work, bringing internationally acclaimed artists to Hampshire. Classical Source has described it as “one of Europe’s most distinguished small festivals”, while Seen and Heard International wrote that the festival has “evolved into something that breaks barriers and reaches for the sky”. Alongside its concert programme, the festival runs an extensive education and Young Artists Programme, offering emerging chamber musicians professional coaching, performance opportunities and mentoring, while its education programme reaches more than 1,500 children each year through workshops and performances in schools across Hampshire.
In demand as a pedagogue, Laura is delighted to take up the position of Professor of Violin and Deputy Head of Strings at the Royal College of Music, following previous positions at the Royal Academy of Music and King’s College London. She has given masterclasses worldwide and coached chamber music at the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein, and is on the faculty of Cadenza International Summer Music School.

Laura studied at St John’s College, Cambridge before moving to the Royal Academy of Music, where she studied with Erich Gruenberg, Remus Azoitei and Alex Redington. She was awarded an honorary DipRAM as well as the Doris Faulkner Prize for her outstanding studentship.
Laura plays on a violin by Gennaro Gagliano from the 1730s.

Faculties / departments: Strings, Junior Department