Tasmin Little

In 2008, Tasmin Little was the subject of a television documentary by the prestigious South Bank Show, which followed her ground-breaking project The Naked Violin.

This ambitious project, which boldly embraced the internet and offered up a free downloadable recital of works for solo violin, achieved phenomenal success after its release in 2008 and was widely hailed as 'revolutionary' and 'inspiring'. It included an on-going series of workshops and concerts around the UK, and created an extraordinary volume of media interest in newspapers, on television, radio and the internet. Within days of the release of The Naked Violin there were over 6000 international websites linked to Tasmin's site, all talking about the pioneering aspect of the download and her ability to promote the value of music to all corners of society. Tasmin received the 2008 Classic FM Gramophone Award for Audience Innovation for this project at the Dochester, London, on September 25th 2008.

Tasmin has played with many of the world's greatest orchestras in a career that has taken her to every continent of the world. In addition to her regular solo performances, she has play/directed orchestras such as Royal Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, London Mozart Players, English Chamber Orchestra, Norwegian Chamber, European Union Chamber Orchestra and Britten Sinfonia. In 2007/08 she joined the London Mozart Players as soloist and director in a tour of the UK which also featured her UK conducting debut.

As a concerto player, Tasmin's performances in the 2009/10 season took her back to the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam where she gave the World Premiere of a violin concerto by Willem Jeths. She returns to the Concertgebouw twice in the 2010/11 Season to perform violin concerti by Loevendie and Prokofiev. Other performances in 2010/11 include concerts in Australia, New Zealand and Slovenia, as well as a Festival at Kings Place, London, entitled; Tasmin Little and Friends: Violin Journeys.

In 2011, Tasmin made her seventeenth appearance at the BBC Promenade Concerts in the Royal Albert Hall, London, in a performance of the Elgar Violin Concerto with Sir Andrew Davis and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. She continues to champion seldom-performed repertoire, and has received critical acclaim as one of the few violinists to have mastered Ligeti's challenging violin concerto. Her 2003 tour with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle, during which she performed the concerto at the Proms, Berlin Philharmonie, the Salzburg Festival, New York's Carnegie Hall and Philadelphia's Kimmel Center, received unanimous critical acclaim ('the technical command was glorious' ­ The Guardian; 'very beautiful' ­ Berliner Morgenpost; 'a major violin talent' ­ Philadelphia Inquirer; 'a formidable soloist' ­ New York Times). In 2007 she returned to the work with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.

In 2006, Tasmin was Artistic Director of her hugely successful Delius Inspired Festival, which was broadcast for an entire week on BBC Radio 3 in July. An exciting range of events, ranging from orchestral concerts and chamber music to films and exhibitions, also reached 800 school children in an ambitious programme designed to widen interest in classical music for young people. She was Artistic Director of Spring Sounds Festival from 2008 until 2010.

Her discography reflects her wide-ranging repertoire and includes twenty-three recordings, ranging from Bruch and Brahms to Karlowicz and Arvo Pärt. In March 2009 she released the disc Partners in Time, her follow-up to The Naked Violin, and Autumn 2010 sees the release of a major new recording with Chandos of the Elgar violin concerto including a re-creation of a special version of the accompanied cadenza.

Tasmin is an Ambassador for The Prince's Foundation for Children and the Arts, is a Fellow of the Guildhall of Music and Drama, is President of ESTA (European String Teachers Association), and has received Honorary Degrees from the Universities of Bradford, Leicester, Hertfordshire and City of London.

She plays a 1757 Guadagnini violin and has, on kind loan from the Royal Academy of Music, the 'Regent' Stradivarius of 1708.