ABOUT
NOT YOUR AVERAGE CELLIST
Victoria has been fending off looks for carrying a large box around for the best part of 40 years. She’s had rocks thrown at her in playgrounds, tramps laugh at her in train stations, been greeted at airports by moose, but she’s never left it on a train or in the back of a cab. She did leave it in Caffé Nero once, but only for five minutes and she ran like the wind once she realised.
When it’s out of the box, Victoria’s c.1761 Robert Thompson cello (affectionately known as Grandpa Bob), has taken her in all sorts of directions since she graduated from the Royal College of Music in 2000, and previously the Royal Northern College of Music in 1999, having studied with Hannah Roberts, Steven Doane and Margaret Moncrieff.
As principal cello Victoria performed with the Guildford Philharmonic, London Soloists and Sinfonia ViVa, and trialled as Principal cello for the English Sinfonia.
She worked regularly with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and performed with amongst others English National Ballet, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Ballet Rambert.
She was also not seen, but most definitely heard in West End shows including Guys and Dolls, Sound of Music, Mahabharata (Sadler’s Wells’ first production featuring the spoken word) and the première performance of Berlin.
She’s recorded and performed with Nitin Sawhney, Scott Walker, Damon Albarn, Anoushka Shankar, Jarvis Cocker, Akram Khan and Lisa Stansfield. And has done sessions for the London Telefilmonic Orchestra.
As a soloist, Victoria has premiered works by Stephen Dodgson, Douglas Coombes, Adrian Marshall Smith and Montgomery Sadler, and performed as soloist on tracks by Peter Howarth, Joe Carabine and Daniele Falagone.
Her debut album To The Trains with pianist Daniel Hill, was released in 2012 and features works by Debussy, Martinu, Glazunov and Saint-Saëns.
She has performed recitals and concertos throughout the UK and abroad, most recently in Deal with the renowned pianist Anthony Halstead, premiering works by Adrian Marshall Smith.
A passionate chamber musician, Victoria has blasted out baselines and a rather good whinny in Covent Garden and travels all over the country with various ensembles, serenading newly weds and livening up dinner parties.
She’s been seen at the Chelsea and Hampton Court Flower Shows, and done numerous weddings with ensembles including Palatine Quartet, Regent Quartet, Haysden Quartet, Adriamus Quartet, Abraxas Ensemble and Reflection Strings. And worn posh jackets in huge dining halls with the London Banqueting Ensemble.
Victoria is Creative Director of Weddington Strings which she set up in 2021.
As well as giving regular performances throughout Kent, as suppliers for numerous events venues and locations, The Weddies are also currently Fever Candlelight Concert Artists for Kent, giving regular sell-out performances in Kent and further afield.
Victoria recently recorded a lovely new CD of English piano and string orchestra works with the Chamber Ensemble of London, that was released in 2019. She wasn’t playing the piano though, someone much better was!
Victoria has always had a passion for education and has taught cello to all ages for over 25 years, both in the UK and abroad. She has dedicated a great deal of her career to teaching, and adopts the philosophy “if you’re lucky enough to love what you do, you should pass it on”.
Victoria has taught in the UK for Kent College, Folkestone Grammar School for Girls, Croydon High School, Forest School, Southwark Music Service, Barking & Dagenham Community Music Service, Berkshire Maestros, Blackheath High School, Prendergast School and Bexley Academy of Music and Performing Arts.
From 2009 - 2012 she led workshops in primary, secondary and special needs schools across Trinidad and Tobago with the Savannah Quartet. She also worked alongside El Sistema tutors from Venezuela, coaching the National Youth Philharmonic Orchestra of Trinidad and Tobago and regularly coached the National Sinfonia of Trinidad and Tobago, and local instrumental ensembles Birdsong and Divine Echoes.
Victoria is currently the cello coach for Canterbury Youth Festival Orchestra, and has given recent workshops at Marlborough House School.
She currently runs her Cellowalker Cello School in Canterbury and will be teaching cello at Simon Langdon Girls Grammar, from January 2025.