Born in London in 1979, Ruth Rogers began violin lessons at the age of five. In 1997 she was awarded a Foundation Scholarship to the Royal College of Music to study with Itzhak Rashkovsky. She graduated in 2001 with First Class Honours and was awarded the Tagore Gold medal – the College’s highest accolade – by HRH The Prince of Wales. From 2008 until 2012 Ruth was the co-leader of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and in 2015 was appointed as one of the Leaders of the London Mozart Players. She regularly guest leads the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, and Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and has appeared in principal roles with the Hallé, Philharmonia and RLPO. She has led orchestras under the batons of such maestros as Daniele Gatti, Sir Colin Davis and Sakari Oramo. As chamber musician, Ruth has performed at the Aldeburgh and Bath Festivals with the Tate Ensemble, and is a member of the Iuventus String Quartet and the Aquinas Piano Trio. She has appeared at the Wigmore Hall with the Nash Ensemble. Ruth appears regularly with the Oxford Philharmonic.

Matthew Denton has performed for more than 20 years as the leader of the Carducci String Quartet, winning prizes at international competitions including the Concert Artists Guild (USA), Kuhmo (Finland), Charles Hennen (Holland), Osaka (Japan), Bordeaux (France) and London (UK). He has recorded over 25 CDs for labels including Signum, Naxos, BMG, Somm, Nimbus and has performed at major concert halls around the world. In 2015 the Quartet won a Royal Philharmonic Society award for ‘Shostakovich15’  – a project which included a performance of the complete Shostakovich quartets in one day, at Shakespeare’s Globe in London. Matt studied with Felix Andrievsky at the RCM and then continued as a Junior Fellow, studying with members of the Amadeus, Alberni and Chilingirian Quartets. He is a violin professor at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Matt plays on a historic Brother’s Amati violin from 1603 – ‘The Hurwitz ex Cooper’.

A disciple of the legendary Soviet violinist Boris Goldstein, Adrian Adlam is a violinist of great versatility who combines careers of performing, conducting and teaching with equal passion. He has appeared as a guest concertmaster with leading European orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Hague Philharmonic, the Southwest German Radio Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie and the Scottish BBC Symphony Orchestra, working with many of the most eminent conductors of our time. He has broadcast for both radio and television, while his CD recordings have included major chamber music works by Spohr, Beethoven, Bartok, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky. His recording of the complete violin sonatas by Carl Nielsen received a supersonic award, and his recording of the Schubert octet was voted surround sound audio DVD of the year in Germany. His live broadcasts of the Bartók Solo Sonata and Berg violin concerto on Deutschland Radio Berlin were received enthusiastically and described as a mature ‘combination of technical expertise with musical integrity’. Following a recital at the Wigmore Hall, Adlam’s playing was described in the Strad magazine as ‘florid, lyrical and majestic’. As Artistic director of the International Freden Music Festival in Germany he has been responsible for the commissioning of over thirty new works for chamber ensemble and orchestra from a wide pool of internationally established composers. The festival was recently awarded the German Praetorius award in recognition of its outstanding contribution to the arts.

Nemanja Ljubinković began his musical studies at the age of 6 in Belgrade with Dejan Mihailović, giving his first recital aged 10. He was the prize-winner at the International Yamaha Competition, Città di Genova Violin Awards and the Jeunesse Musicale Competition. He studied in Munich at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater with Anna Chumachenko, and he regularly worked with Zakhar Bron, Ida Haendel, and Igor Ozim.  As a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician he has performed with the Bayerishe Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester, Bayerische Staatsoper, München Kammerorchester and Bayreuth Festipielhaus among many others. He is also a member of the award-winning chamber ensemble Double Sens in Paris, with whom he has recorded four albums exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon.

Anna Croad is Sub-Principal Violin of the Oxford Philharmonic and enjoys a varied freelance career which encompasses playing in many major London orchestras including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia, BBC Concert Orchestra and Guy Barker’s Big Band. In lockdown Classic FM chose to share Anna’s solo violin premiere of sister Libby Croad’s unaccompanied solo violin composition, ‘Essence’ which went on to receive over 25k views. Anna enjoys performing a wide range of musical styles and has been privileged to perform and be engaged to record and tour with artists including the late Luciano Pavarotti, Yo-Yo Ma, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Adele, Hugh Jackman, Simply Red, Emeli Sande, Gregory Porter and Lana del Rey. Anna co-founded her highly successful contemporary string ensemble, ‘Blue Topaz Strings’ which perform for private events and have entertained well-known figures including Her Majesty the Queen, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Jamie Oliver at venues including Wembley Stadium, Ronnie Scott’s, Kensington Palace and The National Theatre.

Emanuela Buta is Sub-Principal First Violin of the Oxford Philharmonic. Born in Romania, Emanuela studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music under Maurice Hasson and Philippe Graffin, and won the Doris Faulkener Solo Violin Award and the honorary Diploma of RAM. At 7, Emanuela performed solo with the Arad Philharmonic Orchestra in Romania, and won the National Romanian Solo competitions between 1999-2001. She has made television appearances with the Myrios Quartet, and has toured Europe, Middle East and Far East both as a soloist and chamber musician as part of Femusa ensemble and on several occasions has lead Sinfonia Cymru. In 2005, Emanuela won the National Youth String Quartet Competition as a member of the Azzura String Quartet. As part of the Myrios Quartet, she has performed at festivals including the Soviet Chamber, Slav, Windsor, Swaledale and Norfolk & Norwich. She was invited by the conductor Gianandrea Noseda to play in his Settimane Musicale orchestra in Stresa, Italy in 2006 and 2008. Emanuela coaches chamber music at Junior Guildhall and Pro Corda and enjoys a busy freelance career internationally and in London working with the Philharmonia, BBC Concert and Royal Philharmonic orchestras.

Tereza Privratska graduated from Prague Conservatory under the tutelage of Jindrich Pazdera, before moving to London to study with Maurice Hasson and Jack Liebeck at Royal Academy of Music, completing a BMus and a MMus. A sought-after solo, chamber and orchestral performer, Tereza is a prize winner of several international violin competitions, including the Kocian International Competition (Czech Republic), and The Talents for Europe (Slovakia). At 13, she performed Vivaldi’s Double violin concerto with legendary Josef Suk in Prague’s Rudolfinum. Other appearances include the Prague Spring International Festival, and solo recitals in Europe and North America. She is the founder and 1^st violin of the award-winning Jubilee Quartet, who performs regularly in venues and festivals internationally; with London appearances at Wigmore Hall, Conway Hall and Purcell Room. Tereza is a devoted violin and chamber music teacher and is currently undertaking a PhD in string quartet pedagogy. She teaches string quartets at the Purcell School Chamber Academy and is an Assistant Violin Teacher at The Yehudi Menuhin School.

Imogen started playing the violin at the age of 6 and won an exhibition to the RCM Junior Department aged 11. On entering the RCM full time, she studied with John Ludlow and latterly, Rodney Friend and Hugh Bean. During her time at the RCM, she led three of the four College orchestras, and secured a job in the BBC Symphony Orchestra during her 4th year of study. Upon leaving the RCM, she was awarded the Tagore Gold medal for the most outstanding student of the year. Four years later in she became the youngest member of the Philharmonia, where she played for 30 years in venues across the globe and with many of the world’s finest conductors and soloists. Since leaving in 2017, Imogen has pursued a very busy freelance career orchestrally mainly in London, but also playing in guest principal positions in Birmingham, Cardiff, Bournemouth, Newcastle, and Liverpool. She joined the Oxford Philharmonic after being offered a Principal First Violin position in 2018.

*The participation of Imogen East is supported by Maggie Copus. 

Violinist Barbara Dziewięcka-Data performs a broad variety of musical styles from classical to Latin. Born in Poland, she graduated from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and Royal College of Music in London. She is a winner of numerous competitions for both solo and chamber music.

Barbara’s solo and chamber music performances has taken her to various music festivals around the world, to include UK, United States, Poland, Germany, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, France, Colombia, Cuba, Azerbaijan, Dubai and others.

Since 2010, Barbara has been regularly working with Nigel Kennedy, as a co-leader of his “Orchestra of Life”, as well as individually, including 2013 BBC Proms Festival as a Principal viola, and the Gala Concert at the Royal Albert Hall with Jean-Luc Ponty and the Led Zeppelin’s star Robert Plant. She took part in Kennedy’s recordings for Sony Classical: A. Vivaldi’s The New Four Seasons in 2011 and the album ‘Recital’ recorded in Abbey Road Studios. Busy touring with Nigel Kennedy has taken her to Berlin Philharmonic, Cologne Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Staadcasino Basel, Palais des Congress in Paris, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall in London and many more.

Barbara is an assistant concertmaster at the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, with which she performed with renowned artists such as Maxim Vengerov, Martha Argerich, Antonio Pappano, Evgeny Kissin, Angela Gheorghiu and many others. Most recently, the orchestra has performed in Carnegie Hall in New York, Vienna’s Musikverein and Dubai Opera. Barbara also works with other British orchestras to include Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Mozart Players and others.

She appeared as a soloist and orchestra leader for Lionel Liu’s concert in Barbican Hall, as well as for Oxford Opera Company and Senbla Concert Orchestra at the Birmingham Symphony Hall. She regularly performs as a Principal Second Violin to include three Gala concerts for Quincy Jones in O2 Arena in London and Accor Arena in Paris.

Barbara is interested in other music genres and improvisation, but her true passion is Latin music. She is a solo violinist in a Latin-American ensemble Classico Latino, with which she performs around the UK, in Europe and Colombia, including Teatro Colon and Teatro Mayor in Bogota. She appeared in all major Colombian TV and radio stations and recorded an album in the legendary Egrem Studios in Havana, Cuba.

Barbara is also a violin teacher and a dedicated chamber musician and regularly performs in a piano trio.

She has given masterclasses at the Western State Connecticut University in the US and holds a certificate of the Phase I Colourstrings teaching method Course. She is a chamber music coach in Cambridge Chamber Academy, where she has given numerous masterclasses and taught on residential summer courses. She currently works at the North London Conservatoire, North Bridge House Senior School and the Junior Department of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Colin Callow studied at Chetham’s School and the Royal Northern College of Music. He performed with the Northern Sinfonia, before taking a position with the Amphion quartet. Subsequently, he has performed with quartets including the English, Medici and Chilingirian quartet, and played with the London Philharmonic Orchestra for 19 years, and more recently with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He has coached many summer schools in England and Italy as an assistant to Manny Hurwitz. Colin is Principal 2^nd Violin of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra.