University News Last updated 30 September 2022
Junior Conservatoire alumnus Roberto Ruisi has been announced as the new Leader of the Hallé Orchestra. The appointment recognises Roberto as one of the finest young violinists in the UK.
Roberto will make his debut as Leader at The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester on Thursday 6 October in a performance conducted by the Hallé’s Music Director Sir Mark Elder.
The performance includes Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.3 and features Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben.
Roberto said:
As Leader of the Hallé, Roberto will have the use of a 1695 Stradivarius violin, known as the Lincoln Strad. The instrument was given to the City of Lincoln in 1970 by the Honourable Mrs Dudley Pelham, and is on loan to the Leader of the Hallé.
Roberto’s career to date:
- Roberto is the youngest of three brothers; all of whom studied at the Junior Conservatoire. He started violin in 2001, aged five, in RBC’s Young Strings Project taught by Visiting Lecturer Lucy Akehurst.
- In 2003, aged seven, Roberto joined the National Children’s Orchestra, and in 2006, aged nine, he was awarded a Leverhulme Trust scholarship and went on to lead the main orchestra.
- Roberto gained distinction at Grade 8 violin aged 10, and in 2008, aged 11, he won RBC’s concerto prize and performed the Bruch violin concerto with the Junior Conservatoire Symphony Orchestra.
- In 2011, aged 14, his Junior Conservatoire piano trio won the Senior Conservatoire John Ireland Prize. He won second prize in the Chandos Young Musician Competition that year too.
- In 2012, Roberto was appointed leader of the National Youth Orchestra. He also held a Department for Education Music and Dance Scheme National Award, and studied violin with Senior Violin Tutor Nathaniel Vallois before moving on to study at the Royal College of Music.
Head of Junior Conservatoire Timothy English said: “This appointment is a huge achievement for such a young violinist. Roberto started the violin in our Young Strings Project and progressed through the Junior Conservatoire, leading all of our orchestras in turn until he left school. He is quite simply one of the most talented young violinists that I have ever seen.”