ABBA

Violist from Huddersfield, England, who attended Chetham’s School of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the Royal Northern College of Music.

She became principal viola of the Manchester Camerata when she was about twenty years old. Other groups with whom she has worked include the Dante Quartet, the Fitzwilliam String Quartet, the London Chamber Orchestra, the London Conchord Ensemble, the Michael Nyman Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, the Philharmonia String Trio, and the Razumovsky Ensemble.

Rachel caught the Philharmonia’s eye, or ear, when she won their Trevor Snoad Memorial Prize and played a concerto with them at St. John’s, Smith Square. In May 2000, they awarded her their principal viola chair. Other highlights from 2000 included performing “Brandenburg Concerto No. 6” by Johann Sebastian Bach with Andreas Schiff at Royal Festival Hall and appearing on Vikram Seth’s An Equal Music: Over 2 ½ hours of music featured in the bestselling novel.

In January 2002, Rachel participated in the Taneyev Festival at Wigmore Hall in London, England. She and Arisa Fujita, Steven Isserlis, Pekka Kuusisto and Daniel Muller-Schott performed Sergei Taneyev’s “String Quintet No. 1 in G, Op. 14” on 16^th January 2002. On 19^th January 2002, she and Nelson Goerner and Steven Isserlis performed Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Trio Elegiaque No. 2 in D minor, Op. 9” in the same venue.

She appeared on the soundtrack of 24 Heures de la vie d’une femme in 2002 and John Gay: The Beggar’s Opera; Edward German: Tom Jones in 2003.

On 8^th July 2005, the Razumovsky Ensemble, which consisted of Rachel, violinist Philippe Ensemble, cellist Oleg Kogan and pianist Ronan O’Hara, performed a program at Wigmore Hall that included Ludwig van Beethoven’s “String Trio in G, Op. 9, No. 1”, Gabriel Faure’s “Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15”, and Maurice Ravel’s “Sonata for violin and cello”.

Rachel Roberts’ name adorned a pair of CDs in 2006, Keys to the World by Richard Ashcroft and Here’s to the Heroes by The Ten Tenors. On 4^th April 2006, she performed Derek Bermel’s “Soul Garden” at Queen Elizabeth Hall. The Philharmonia String Trio, rounded out by cellist David Cohen and violinist Maya Iwabuchi, interpreted Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Divertimento in E flat for violin, viola and cello, K. 563” at the New Walk Museum & Art Gallery. On 6^th December 2006, she and Steven Isserlis, Ian Partridge and Lars Vogt delivered a Fundraising Concert in London, England.

Rachel appeared at Dryburgh Hall, Putney Leisure Centre on 5^th February 2007. On 17^th March 2007, The London Bridge Ensemble, which included Rachel, cellist Kate Gould and violinist Benjamin Nabarro, joined forces with bass-baritone Ivan Ludlow for Music in the Round at the Crucible Studio Theatre in Sheffield. The program comprised Johannes Brahms “Piano Quartet, Op. 25”, Frank Bridge’s “Phantasy Trio” and “Three songs with viola”, and Robert Schumann’s “Liederkreis, Op. 24”, his settings of poems by Heinrich Heine.

Rachel and Steven Isserlis, violinist Jennifer Frautschi and pianist Denes Varjon participated in the Schumann Celebration on 21^st April 2007 by performing Brahms’ “Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 60” at Wigmore Hall. Before the year was out, she had performed a Gala Concert with Gustav Rivinius and Lars Vogt at Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Germany.

In 2008, she appeared on the album, Messaien: Chamber Works. She and cellist Gautier Capucon, violinist Renaud Capucon and Lars Vogt performed Brahms’ “Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op.25” at Musikverein’s Grosser Saael in Vienna, Austria, on 1^st June 2008.

On 12^th July 2008, she and violinist Arvid Engegard and fellow violist Julyet Jopling performed Georg Benjamin’s “Viola, Viola” at Moskenes Church in Lofoten, Norway, as part of the Lofoten International Chamber Music Festival.

She and violinist Benjamin Schmid were the stars on 30^th October 2008 when the Philharmonia performed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Sinfonia concertante for violin, viola at orchestra, K. 364” at Royal Festival Hall, an evening that was capped off by Anton Bruckner’s “Symphony No. 4”.

In 2009, she appeared on the CDs, Dvorak: Serenade for Winds op. 44/String Quartet No. 13, Johann Sebastian Bach, Mendelssohn/Enescu: Octets for strings, and Schubert Octets Widmann. She and Lars Vogt, Christian Poltera and Antje Weeithaas participated in Festival Ostertoene in Hamburg, Germany, in April 2009. In September 2009, she became a member of the faculty at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Her students have included Elitsa Bogdanova and Josh Stilwell.

She and violinists Florien Donderer and Christian Tetzlaff, fellow violist Isabelle van Keulen and cellists Gustav Rivinius and Quirine Viersen performed Antonin Dvorak’s “String Sextet in A major, op. 48” at the Power Plant in Heimbach, Germany, on 25^th July 2009. Donderer, van Keulen, violinist Elisabeth Kufferath, Rachel, cellist Tanja Tetzlaff and Viersen Mark-Anthony Turnage’s “Returning for String Sextet” at the same venue on 26^th June 2009.

On 4^th October 2009, she and Lars Vogt performed Brahms’ “Sonate fur Viola und Klavier f-Moll op. 120/1” and “Sonata fur Viola und Klavier Es-dur op. 120/2” and Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Sonate fur Bratsche und Klavier C-Dur op. 147” in Aachen, Germany.

Rachel and violinist Maya Iwabuchi performed Helen Grime’s “To see the summer sky” in the Philharmonia’s pre-concert recital on 21^st January 2010. This was the warm-up for Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466” and Gustav Mahler’s “Symphony No. 5”.

On 7^th October 2009, the London Conchord Ensemble, whose numbers included cellist Thomas Carroll, violinist Giovanni Guzzo, oboist Emily Pailthorpe and Rachel performed Beethoven’s “String Trio, Op. 9, No. 2”, Benjamin Britten’s “Phantasy Quartet, Op. 2”, Ernst von Dohnanyi’s “String Trio, Op. 10”, and Mozart’s “Oboe Quartet, K. 370”.

Rachel appeared on the mouthful of an album, Dvorak: String sextet op. 48; Schumann: 5 Stucke im Volkston op. 102; Schumann & Reimann: Fantasiestucke op. 73; Reimann: Solo for clarinet, in 2010.

On 4^th November 2010, Rachel and Florian Donderer, Tanja Tetzlaff and Lars Vogt performed Dvorak’s “Klavierquartett op. 87 Es-Dur” at Sendesaal in Bremen, Germany.

Rachel added the Dante String Quartet to her resume in 2001. In February 2011, they appeared in Amsterdam and in March 2011, they performed at King’s Place. Her recording of viola sonatas by Brahms and “Marchenbilder” by Schumann, in tandem with Lars Vogt, was scheduled to hit the shelves in the summer of 2011.

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