Tasmin Little has firmly established herself as one of today's leading international violinists. She has performed on every continent in some of the most prestigious venues of the world, including Carnegie Hall, Musikverein, Concertgebouw, Philharmonie Berlin, Vienna Konzerthaus, South Bank Centre, Barbican Centre and Royal Albert Hall, Lincoln Center and Suntory Hall.
Tasmin’s concerto appearances include those with Adelaide Symphony, Berliner Philharmoniker, Bournemouth Symphony, Berliner Symphoniker, City of Birmingham Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Malaysian Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, Royal Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Singapore Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Ulster Orchestra, West Australian Symphony and all the BBC Orchestras.
Her multi-award winning and varied career encompasses international concerto and recital performances, master classes, workshops and community outreach work. Tasmin's discography and performance schedule reflect her wide-ranging repertoire and she has given numerous World Premiere performances including concerti by Willem Jeths, Robin de Raaf, Stuart MacRae, Robert Saxton and Dominic Muldowney. Her newly 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 this work at the Berlin Philharmonie, New York Carnegie Hall, Salzburg Festival, BBC Proms, Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Philadelphia Kimmel Center.
Tasmin is an exclusive recording artist for Chandos Records. Her recording of the Elgar Violin Concerto with Sir Andrew Davis and the Royal National Scottish Orchestra garnered outstanding critical acclaim and was awarded the Critic's Choice Award in the 2011 Classic BRIT Awards. Her recording of the Britten Concerto with Edward Gardner and the BBC Philharmonic, released in 2013, also received lavish critical praise - “one of the finest (versions) committed to disc”, “a rapturous disc”, “an incandescent commitment to the work”, “her virtuosity is breathtaking”.
Other releases for Chandos include a disc of British orchestral works of violin concerti by Coleridge Taylor and Haydn Wood and the Delius Suite with the BBC Philharmonic and Sir Andrew Davis, a French Violin Sonatas disc of sonatas by Lekeu, Ravel and Fauré with Martin Roscoe, a British Violin Sonatas disc of works by Ferguson, Britten and Walton with Piers Lane, and a 2 CD-set of Schubert Chamber Works with Tim Hugh and Piers Lane. In February 2016, Tasmin released a highly-acclaimed triple CD of the complete Beethoven sonatas with Martin Roscoe, which was launched following a concert at London's Wigmore Hall. The Sunday Times chose this recording as its Album of the Week - “Neither artist has done anything finer on disc.”
Further awards include a Gramophone Award for Audience Innovation for her ground-breaking musical outreach programme, The Naked Violin, a Diapason d'Or for her disc of Delius Violin Sonatas with Piers Lane, and a Gold Badge Award for Services to Music.
More recently Tasmin returned to the studio to record two further discs for Chandos. The first, the World Premiere of Roxanna Panufnik’s Four World Seasons written for Tasmin and coupled with Vivaldi Four Seasons and recorded with the BBC Symphony Orchestra is widely hailed by critics for its ‘virtuosity’, ‘vivid sense of character’ and ‘lustrous tone’ (Gramophone). The second, a disc of Franck, Szymanowski and Fauré with pianist Piers Lane is lauded by audiences and press alike for its ‘impassioned performances’, ‘yearning melody’ and ‘energy and poetry’ (The Observer).
The 2016/2017 season saw Tasmin return to the London Philharmonic Orchestra to perform Walton violin concerto with Osmo Vånska at the Royal Festival Hall in London, Szymanowksi violin concerto no.2 with Edward Gardner at the Barbican Centre and Tchaikovsky violin concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Cadogan Hall. In the United Kingdom, Tasmin also performed with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Further afield, her engagements this season included 6 weeks of recitals and concerti in Australia, concerti in Poland and Ireland and a recital in Hong Kong’s City Hall. Tasmin enjoys a very active recital life that sees her performing at all the major festivals and venues throughout the United Kingdom including BBC broadcast recitals from the Wigmore Hall and Cheltenham Festival. Highlights of the coming months include returning to the Ulster Orchestra to play Szymanowski concerto no.2, bringing performances of ‘The Naked Violin’ project to audiences in recitals across Scotland and performing the Britten violin concerto in Porto, Portugal with the Symphonic Orchestra of Porto Casa da Musica and Baldur Bronnimann, conducting.
In 2008, Tasmin launched her project, The Naked Violin, aimed at breaking down barriers to classical music by releasing a free CD for download on her website, and performing in the community where music is rarely heard. Within days of the CD release, 6,500 websites had linked to Tasmin’s site and within a few months, more than half a million people had visited and downloaded. The project was filmed for television by ITV’s The South Bank Show. Tasmin continues to present this project both in the UK as well as on tour in America, China, New Zealand, Ireland and United Arab Emirates (Dubai).
Tasmin Little is a Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (FGSM), a Vice President of the Elgar Society, an Ambassador for The Prince’s Foundation for Children and the Arts, and for Youth Music, and has received Honorary Degrees from the Universities of Bradford, Leicester, Hertfordshire, Birmingham City and City of London. In 2016, she was awarded Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music (Hon RAM) by the Academy and the University of London.
In 2012, Tasmin Little was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Birthday Honours List, for Services to Music. She plays a 1757 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin.
