In 2016, Rebecca moved to Cardiff to take up the post of
Principal Viola of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. For over
ten years she has been a member of the Callino String Quartet, a
group founded at the West Cork Music Festival, which continues to
enjoy a high profile in Ireland as well as making regular festival
performances across Europe. They have played at London’s Wigmore
Hall, have twice been resident at Banff Centre for Arts and
Creativity in Canada where they met and collaborated with Arcade
Fire, and spent a week in New York with the famed contemporary
specialists the Kronos Quartet, culminating in a recital at
Carnegie Hall. They have recorded three commercial discs and will
soon release their reading of Haydn’s Seven Last Words on the
Cross.
Rebecca's musically formative years were spent in Manchester at
Chetham’s School of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music.
She then took the opportunity to study with Thomas Riebl at the
Universitat Mozarteum in Salzburg, where she performed the Balcom
Concerto for Viola and Cello live on Austrian national radio as
part of the ‘Mozartwoche’ festival. During this time she was placed
4th at the prestigious Lionel Tertis International Viola Prize.
Most recently she was Assistant Principal Viola of the City of
London Sinfonia and continues to guest with top UK chamber
ensembles including the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, the
Aurora Orchestra and the baroque group Arcangelo, with whom she
performed the 6th Brandenburg Concerto at the Wigmore Hall. She is
a frequent session musician and has toured with Adele, Bjørk and
the Stereophonics. Since moving to Wales, she has also become a
guest professor at the Royal Welsh College and the Birmingham
Conservatoire.
Callino Quartet