Instrument: Violin

Originally from Luxembourg, Claire Osborne read Musicology at the Universities of Strasbourg/France and Oxford, obtaining a French Maîtrise de Musicologie in July 2004. She joined Jan Repko’s violin class at the RNCM in September 2005, where she completed her BMus and Postgraduate Diploma in 2007 resp. 2008.

Claire is a former member of the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, the European Union Youth Orchestra as well as the Jeunesses Musicales World Youth Orchestra. This has given her the chance to work with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Bernard Haitink, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur and Sir John Eliot Gardiner. She has attended masterclasses with members of Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ensemble Intercontemporain as well as György Pauk, Benjamin Zander, Maurice Hasson, Ivry Gitlis and Tasmin Little.

Before joining Opera North full time in January 2010, Claire led a busy freelance life with the Hallé Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Manchester Camerata, Opera North, as well as back home in Luxembourg with Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Solistes Européens Luxembourg. In May 2007, she performed Brahms Violin Concerto with the Luxembourg Chamber Orchestra ‘Les Musiciens’. She also regularly appeared in recitals organised by the Schengen Music Academy in Luxembourg, Moscow, Brest, Brussels and Bratislava.

Claire is proud to be part of the YYM tutors’ team as YYM students bring along enthusiasm, talent and, most importantly, their love for music – YYM is a fantastic environment for these young people to blossom.

Rebecca enjoys a varied musical life, combining teaching and performing. Following the completion of an undergraduate degree at Durham University, where she was winner of the inaugural Soloist’s Competition, Rebecca undertook three years of postgraduate study at the Royal Northern College of Music. Here, she was a winner of the Salon Prize and enjoyed the diversity of opportunities available to her. Rebecca holds a teaching position at Chethams School of Music in Manchester and at Yorkshire Young Musician’s Hull centre, and undertakes cover teaching for the RNCM’s junior department and Sheffield Music Academy. She also maintains a busy private teaching practice.

As a performer, highlights have included a tour of Schubert’s Death and the Maiden in collaboration with dance company Fertile Ground and numerous engagements as both a soloist and within orchestral and chamber music settings. She is violinist in the violin and harp pairing Duo Azure and was a recent prizewinner of the Monday Musicales concert series for the audience’s most enjoyed concert of the season. Rebecca has cultivated a strong interest in historical performance and enjoys life as a Baroque violinist as part of her freelance career. Away from music, Rebecca loves to be outdoors and can often be found on trails in the lake district, or at home baking cakes.