Michael Bennett

I am a freelance viola player based in the UK, and work with several leading orchestras. I studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London.  I spend most of my time doing concerts around London and the south of England with choirs, chamber groups, and in concert halls. 

In the past few years, I have played for Baroque opera productions with the Cambridge Handel Opera Company - including Handel's Rodelinda; and a Rameau opera with Ensemble Orquesta, which was part of the Grimeborn festival at the Arcola Theatre in Hackney.  I have also played with the London Concert Orchestra in Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Nottingham, and the Royal Festival Hall. During 2018 I was part of a very successful production of Ethel Smyth's The Wreckers with Stowe Opera.  I also did a recording for award winning Bandonean player Bartosz Glowacki which can be heard in the attached video.  Last year I travelled to Malta to perform a Baroque concert with Les Bougies Baroques, which was part of the Malta Baroque Festival. 

2020 looks to be an exciting year, with another Baroque opera in April, concerts with The Little Orchestra celebrating Beethoven's 250th anniversary, and two more in my home county of Suffolk.

As well as freelance playing, I teach privately and have taken students through the ABRSM grades for violin. 

I have a very patient, friendly, and calm approach, and I always watch students for any areas of tension. Playing the violin is not a very natural thing for a human to do, and there are a lot of physical problems that need to be addressed. Even just holding the instrument itself can be problematic. However, we don't spend all of our time worrying about every postural possibility. In the early stages, most time is spent looking at the four fingers and their relation to one another. I don't believe in teaching the fingers independently, so I get students to have all four on the string as soon as possible. The easiest scale, G Major at two octaves, can then be played fairly quickly. I integrate all sorts of bowing and fingering exercises into the lessons. Half of every lesson will be spent doing scales and exercises, most of which don't require you to read music, and the other half will be whichever piece you are working on.

Learning any instrument should be fun, rewarding, and confidence-building.