Lunchtime Recital - Marike Kruup (violin) and Kumi Matsuo (piano)

Presented by the Royal College of Music

Marike Kruup started her violin studies at Nõmme Music School and continued through Tallinn Music High School and Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre with Professor Mari Tampere-Bezrodny. In 2013 she came to London to join Professor Krzysztof Smietana’s class at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama to complete her undergraduate studies. Marike began studying at the Royal College of Music with Professor Radu Blidar and completed her Master of Performance degree in 2018. She is currently on the Artist Diploma course at the RCM with Professor Blidar and is a Sir John Stratton Scholar supported by the Arthur Bliss Scholarship.

Marike has won prizes in many national and international competitions in Estonia and abroad. Her latest achievements include 1st Prize from the International 'Gianluca Campochiaro' Violin Competition in Italy and 1st prize from the International Renaissance Violin Competition in Armenia. She also has a Diploma from the 2013 International H.Eller Violin Competition and a Diploma from the 2015 'Estonian String Players Competition'. Marike has appeared as a soloist with many orchestras including the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and Tallinn Chamber Orchestra. She has been broadcasted and recorded by Estonian Radio and TV.

As an orchestra player Marike is on trial with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra for the sub-principle second violin position. She has been on trial as a sub-principle second violin with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and she was a member of the London Philharmonic Orchestra Foyle Future First Development Programme for the season 2017/2018. She has worked with Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, European Union Youth Orchestra, Estonian Festival Orchestra, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and Nordic Symphony Orchestra as tutti and principle, playing under conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Paavo-, Kristjan-, and Neeme Järvi, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Antonio Pappano, Michail and Vladimir Jurovsky among others.