Louise Lansdown

Violist, educator, researcher and philanthropist Louise Lansdown is currently Assistant Head of Strings (viola) at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) and Professor of viola and chamber music at the Yehudi Menuhin School (YMS).

Prior to this, Louise was Head of Strings at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (2012-2023) after holding the position of Senior Lecturer at the RNCM (2001-2012). Louise is the founder and Artistic Director of the Cecil Aronowitz International Viola Competition and Festival, launched at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in October 2014. In 2024 Louise directed the merging of the Lionel Tertis and Cecil Aronowitz International Viola Competitions culminating in a major festival and double iteration of the competitions at the Glasshouse International Centre for Music with the Royal Sinfonia from 19-25 January 2025. The new double-bill competitions are a registered charity in the UK and have begun their work across the length and breadth of the UK running Viola days and courses for adults, students and scholars. www.tertisaronowitz.co.uk

Louise is also the founder and President of the British Viola Society https://www.britishviolasociety.co.uk/

Along with her viola students, Louise is the founder of a major distance learning education project that was initiated at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in collaboration with the Morris Isaacson Centre for Music in Soweto, South Africa called “ARCO”. The project was launched in July 2015 and was nominated for a guardian internationalization award in 2018 and a BASA22 Award in 2019 (Business and Arts South Africa). Louise Launched ARCO India in 2021, in collaboration with KM Music Conservatory, AR Rahman Foundation and the Sunshine Orchestra and ARCO Prince Albert in 2023. ARCO is a recognised non-profit organisation in South Africa. The project is currently supported by the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, Prince Albert Community Trust, Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra, RNCM, Friends of Orchestral Music, D’Addario Foundation. Louise initiated the Kaleidoscope Chamber Music Festival in Prince Albert in 2025, the first solely South African music festival entirely with its raison d’etre to support the ARCO Project. The project currently teaches over 100 young learners between the ages of 4-14 violin, viola, cello and double bass. ARCO Teaching and Learning Manager Elliot Tingley is based on the ground in Prince Albert alongside his role facilitating the ARCO module at the RNCM. www.arco-project.org

She plays on a French Viola c.1750, 1890 Sartory bow, both previously belonging to the South African violist Cecil Aronowitz. Antoine Gourdon has recently crafted an exact copy of her Cecil Aroniwitz viola. Louise plays mostly chamber music and solo concerts, collaborating with violists and other musicians across the world. She commissions new music for the viola and concocts hair brain schemes to perform music by Paul Hindemith and much unknown viola music, bringing the viola to many unsuspecting and innocent people. Louise has a publishing contract from Schott and is working on a book “Hindemith and the Viola”.

She is a member of the South African “Ubuntu Ensemble” who headline the African Concert Series at Wigmore Hall. She is also Principal Violist of the Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra.

Louise has recently released her first solo album on Meridian Records of unpublished, unknown music for viola by South African composers. She has recently recording her second solo album on the Meridian Label. As a result of recording this music Louise has recently started her own publishing company and has begun the process of editing and bringing this music into the published domain “Mzansi Publishing” has brought out Monthati Masebe’s ‘Trials that trail”, a set of 10 pieces for solo viola to the world, and will soon publish John Joubert’s Chamber Concerto and Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph’s Suite Afrique. She is planning further album recordings with South African pianist James Baillieu and mezzo soprano Siphokazi Molteno as well as discs of South African chamber music with the Ubuntu Ensemble.