The VIVAstrings Team

Our co-founders

Rachel Cooper violin

Born in the South West of England, Rachel Gabrysia Cooper started the violin aged 4. She went onto study Music at the University of Chichester where she gained First Class Honours in Violin Performance. After moving to London in 2012 Rachel took up her Masters degree in Music Performance Science at the Royal College of Music graduating in 2014 with a Distinction. It was during her Masters that Rachel’s interest in Music Education Research grew, writing her thesis on the importance of informative music education for young people, in which she used her own residential summer music course as her case study.

Since graduating from her Masters at the Royal College of Music, Rachel has built up a varied portfolio of teaching, performing, research and outreach projects. Rachel is a trained Suzuki Violin teacher working as a Violin/Viola and Chamber Music Coach at Guildhall School of Music and Drama Junior Department, Violin teacher for London Music Masters, Head of Strings at a large free school in Berkshire, and a Violin Coach/lecturer for Nicola Benedetti’s new education initiative: The Benedetti Sessions. Many of Rachel’s students go onto study at Junior Music Colleges in London. Rachel is also a Lecturer and Mentor on a PGCEi course which provides instruction to violinists in group instrumental teaching in association with London Music Masters and Birmingham University. In September 2020, Rachel joined the faculty at the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance, lecturing in Music in Education on their Undergraduate program.

Rachel is regularly invited to give masterclasses across Europe including Germany, Latvia, Lithuania and Belgium. Rachel has played with a number of freelance ensembles and has recently done a recording for Decca Classics with the Benedetti Foundation.

Jenny Lewisohn viola

Throughout the year British/Danish violist Jenny Lewisohn performs with a rich variety of distinguished artists which has taken her around the UK, Europe, South America and Asia. She regularly attends IMS and OCM Prussia Cove and was invited to join the OCM annual tour culminating at Wigmore Hall. A movement of a work for solo viola by Raymond Yiu has been dedicated to Jenny as well as a viola concerto by Eloise Gynn.

Jenny has been a member of several award-winning chamber groups including the Kleio Quartet who were selected as BBC New Generation Artists and recieved first prize and the special commission prize at the Carl Nielsen International Chamber Music Competition in April 2023, the Hieronymus Quartet who completed a Beethoven Cycle at Woodhouse Music and the Lipatti Piano Quartet who have given multiple performances at the Wigmore Hall, in the Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room and at Kings Place as Park Lane Group Young Artists.

She regularly joins the London Symphony Orchestra and Aurora Orchestra with whom she has participated in memorised performances at the Proms, around the UK and abroad, as well as on their recent Deutsche Grammophon ‘Music of the Spheres’ release.

She is an artistic advisor and co-founder of the Marryat Players Chamber Music Festival which takes place in Wimbledon each June. She is also Co-Artistic Director of the Jigsaw Players Concert Series which brings world-class classical, jazz and educational projects to South West London.

Each year Jenny teaches viola, violin and coaches chamber music at La Mariette Junior, a summer course for young musicians in the Loire Valley. She also mentors the viola section of the Marryat Players Chamber Orchestra for Young Musicians in Wimbledon and is an Advanced Viola tutor on Nicola Benedetti’s acclaimed ‘Benedetti Sessions’ which take place across the UK and which have reached a global audience online since May 2020.

Amy Tress violin

Violinist Amy Tress enjoys a busy career as a soloist, first violinist of the Solem Quartet and teacher. Winner of numerous awards including Oxford University’s Gibbs Prize for the highest 1st class Music degree and the Royal College of Music Violin Competition & Unaccompanied Bach Prize, Amy has regularly appeared at major concert venues across the UK such as the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Wigmore Hall.

Amy’s concerto performances with orchestra have included Brahms, Shostakovich, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Korngold, Schnittke Concerto Grosso and the Bach Double, as well as Ravel’s Tzigane, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherezade and Sibelius’s Humoresques.

Having studied Music at Christ Church, Oxford, Amy won a scholarship for Masters and Artist Diploma at the Royal College of Music, with Professor Maciej Rakowski. Subsequently she studied with Professor Pavel Vernikov at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole, Italy. Amy has participated in many solo and chamber music festivals, including IMS Prussia Cove, Wye Valley Chamber Music, Keshet Eilon in Israel, Marryat Chamber Music Festival, Mendelssohn-on-Mull Festival and Academie Internationale de Maurice Ravel. She teaches chamber music at the Royal College of Music Junior Department and violin at Eton College, Windsor. Since August 2014 Amy has directed her own course, La Mariette Junior Masterclasses in France.

Amy has participated in many solo and chamber music festivals, including IMS Prussia Cove, Wye Valley Chamber Music, Keshet Eilon in Israel, Mendelssohn-on-Mull Festival and Academie Internationale de Maurice Ravel. She teaches violin at Eton College, Windsor, and since August 2014 has directed her own course, La Mariette Junior Masterclasses in France.