Rachel Spencer

started playing the violin when she was six with teacher Ralph Barker. She led an active musical life in West Yorkshire and after completing sixth form college in 2007, she was awarded the Leverhulme Scholarship to study at the RSAMD under Peter Lissauer.

During her time there she has participated in masterclasses with Midori, Daniel Rowland, Christian Tetzlaff, the Kelemen-Kokas duo, Ilya Gringolts and Imre Rohmann. Rachel has lead the RSAMD Chamber Orchestra and the RSAMD String Orchestra and in October last year she participated in a “side-by-side” tour with the Scottish Ensemble, playing all over Scotland, recording for BBC Radio 3, and culminating in a performance at the Wigmore Hall.

As second violinist in the Arion Quartet, Rachel has taken part in masterclasses with the Brodsky Quartet and David Watkin as well as a recent course in Norway with the Maggini Quartet. She was winner of the Robert Highgate Scholarship for the violin in 2008, the Hilda Bailey prize for violin in 2009 and earlier this year she won the Ian D Watt Award.

Recently she had the opportunity to play in a string octet with students from the RSAMD led by international fellow Ilya Gringolts in a series of concerts in Scotland. Rachel also enjoys singing and is Soprano 1 Section Leader for the National Youth Choir of Great Britain.