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SHULAH OLIVER

MMus (Dist) BMus (Hons) DipRAM LRAM


Shulah Oliver with violin
Shulah Oliver completed her Masters Degree in Performance with Distinction at the Royal Academy of Music in September 2006, having studied violin with Howard Davis. She was awarded the Diploma of the Royal Academy of Music for her outstanding Final Recital. Her research and concert project involved the study of the British composer Eva Ruth Spalding (1882-1969) and performance of her works. She has a passion for introducing audiences to rarely performed works or works of lesser-known British composers and performing their works with the hope of keeping their music alive and a part of our musical heritage. Her studies were assisted by awards from the Elmley and EMI Music Sound Foundations, Musicians’ Benevolent Fund and Winifred Disney.

Shulah graduated from the Royal College of Music with a First Class Honours Joint Principal (violin/viola) degree in 2004. She was a finalist in the 23rd and 19th Haverhill Sinfonia Soloist Competition and at the Delius Prize and has received commendations in several competitions including the Wilfred Parry Prize, the Winifred Small Prize and Sir Arthur Bliss Prize, and received the John Mundy and D-Day Fund Prize Awards from RAM.

Shulah is a well-respected soloist who is regularly invited to perform concertos with orchestras and give recitals with piano around the country and Europe. She is also the lead violinist of the Astaria String Quartet and Fordante, string player of DUO ARMANDE and was violinist of the Lichnowsky Piano Trio who were prize winners at the 2003 European Music Competition for Youth. As a soloist and ensemble member she has played in venues nationwide and has been invited to play in festivals such as the Paganini London Festival, Norfolk and Norwich Festival, Three Choirs Festival, Worcester Festival, Peter-Maxwell Davis Festival, Rutland Boughton Festival, Roseland Festival and St. Endellion Festival.

Shulah was a member of the prestigious European Union Youth Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. She now freelances with orchestras such as the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, English Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Swan and the Emerald Ensemble and is invited to guest lead several orchestras.

In the Summers of 2008, 2009 and 2011 Shulah was the only violinist selected from the UK to take part and perform at the prestigious London Masterclasses with Gyorgy Pauk. She has participated in many masterclasses with violinists and violists including Tasmin Little, When Zhou Lee, Thomas Brandis, Bruno Giuranna and Yuri Bashmet. Shulah teaches at Gloucester Academy of Music, which includes chamber music coaching, as well as Kings’s School in Worcester. Most recently she has started her own summer music course. Shulah plays on a 1918 'Pierre Hel' violin and a Dodd bow.