Tasmin Little CBE

She has performed at major global venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall and Berlin Philharmonie. Her concerto appearances include those with the Berliner Philharmoniker, London Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, New York Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, Malaysian Philharmonic, West Australian Symphony and all the BBC Orchestras.

Renowned for her versatility, Tasmin’s multi-award-winning career encompasses concerto and recital performances, masterclasses and outreach work. Her wide-ranging repertoire includes numerous world premieres, with new concertos written for her by Willem Jeths, Robin de Raaf, Stuart MacRae, Robert Saxton and Dominic Muldowney.

Her commissioned work Four World Seasons by Roxanna Panufnik was premiered as a live broadcast on the BBC at the start of Music Nation weekend, leading up to the London 2012 Olympic Games. She remains one of the few violinists to perform Ligeti’s challenging Violin Concerto and has performed it at Carnegie Hall, the Salzburg Festival, BBC Proms, Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center.

An exclusive recording artist for Chandos Records, Tasmin’s acclaimed discography includes the Elgar Violin Concerto with Sir Andrew Davis and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, which received the Critic’s Choice Award at the 2011 Classic BRIT Awards, and the Britten Violin Concerto with Edward Gardner and the BBC Philharmonic, praised as 'one of the finest versions committed to disc' and for 'an incandescent commitment to the work'. Other notable releases include concertos by Coleridge-Taylor and Haydn Wood, Delius’s Suite with the BBC Philharmonic, French Violin Sonatas by Lekeu, Ravel and Fauré with Martin Roscoe, and British Violin Sonatas by Ferguson, Britten and Walton with Piers Lane. Her 2016 recording of the complete Beethoven Sonatas with Roscoe was chosen by The Sunday Times as Album of the Week: 'Neither artist has done anything finer on disc.'

In 2008, Tasmin launched her groundbreaking outreach project The Naked Violin, which earned a Gramophone Award for Audience Innovation. Aimed at breaking down barriers to classical music, the project featured a free CD for download and community performances where music is rarely heard. Within days of release, 6,500 websites had linked to Tasmin’s site, and within months more than half a million people had downloaded the recording. The project was featured in ITV’s The South Bank Show and toured in America, China, New Zealand, Ireland and the United Arab Emirates.

Tasmin’s honours include a Diapason d’Or, a Gold Badge Award for Services to Music, and Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music (Hon RAM).

She is a Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Vice President of the Elgar Society, and an Ambassador for The Prince’s Foundation for Children and the Arts and for Youth Music. She holds honorary degrees from several UK universities and was appointed OBE in 2012, and CBE in 2023 for Services to Music. She plays a 1757 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin.