Avril Freemantle

Violinist

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Biography

Avril completed her MA in violin performance and LRAM in string teaching, with Distinction, at the Royal Academy of Music, having  previously trained at the Royal Northern College of Music, graduating with a BMus Honours Degree and an LRSM with Distinction. She was awarded the Clarence Myerscough Award and the Hilda Martindale Scholarship for her MA studies.

As an orchestral player Avril has worked with conductors such as Sir Antonio Pappano, Vassily Petrenko, Gianandrea Noseda, John Wilson and Marin Alsop, performing at The Barbican, The Sage, The Royal Albert Hall, Symphony Hall, Cadogan Hall, LSO St Lukes and Bridgewater Hall.  She gained places on the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra professional experience schemes and played first violin with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in concerts in the North West. 

Avril has played side-by-side with the orchestra of the Royal Opera House, the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, BBC Concert Orchestra and the Britten Sinfonia, and played lead violin in the premiere of the new musical the 8th Fold, at the Duchess Theatre, London. 

She is also a freelance violinist in the Southbank Sinfonia and has led the orchestra in performances of Scheherazade at LSO St Lukes and a programme of Brahms and Beethoven at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London. She played principal 2nd for the Jette Parker Young Artist's production of Rossini's Silken Ladder at the Linbury Studio Theatre, Covent Garden.

Avril has a keen interest in educational work and has worked with the BBC Philharmonic, HallĂ© Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra and English Chamber Orchestra. She was awarded an Open Academy Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music and worked on projects at the Wigmore Hall.

Avril is a violin teacher and Director of Junior String Orchestra at North London Collegiate School.