Artistic Directors - Louisa and Samuel Staples

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Multiple international award-winning British violinist Louisa Staples was born in 2000 and is currently studying at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler with Professor Antje Weithaas. 

She has performed as soloist in many of the world’s most prestigious concert venues including Carnegie Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Royal Festival Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, L’Auditorium de Radio France, Concert Hall of the Forbidden City, Nikolaisaal Potsdam, Wigmore Hall, and the Konzerthaus Berlin. 

Louisa is a major prize winner in competitions including the Long-Thibaud- Crespin International Competition, Louis Spohr International Violin Competition and the Carl Flesch International Competition, where she was awarded a total of four prizes including the Orchestra's Choice Award. In 2021 she was a finalist in the prestigious Premio Paganini International Violin Competition in Genoa. 

  Recent concert highlights include a recital in New York’s Carnegie Hall, appearing as soloist in the Grand Hall of the Liszt Academy in Budapest, L’Auditorium de Radio France and St.Martin-in-the-fields in London and invitations to festivals including the Sommers Musicaux de Gstaad, Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Festival Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the Hamburg International Chamber Music Festival, in addition to numerous solo recitals across Europe. 

Aged eight, Louisa was awarded a place at the prestigious Yehudi Menuhin School where she was a student of Professor Natasha Boyarsky. 

Louisa is a scholarship holder of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and performs on the „ex- Michel Schwalbe“ Guadagnini, made in Piacenza in 1744, generously loaned by the German Instrument Fund. 

British violinist Samuel Staples was born in London to a musical family and began playing the violin when he was five after a short-lived but enthusiastic career as a cellist. Aged eight he was awarded a place at the Yehudi Menuhin School where he studied with Natasha Boyarsky. 

His teachers and mentors since have included András Keller, Vasko Vassilev, Boris Kucharsky, Pavlo Beznosiuk, Andriy Viytovych and Pavel Fisher.

As a soloist and chamber musician he has performed across Europe and the USA as well as in most major UK venues, and is a regular guest at festivals worldwide. Recent highlights include a performance for BBC Radio 3 of Benjamin Britten’s violin concerto with the BBC Philharmonic.

A keen orchestral musician, Samuel is in increasingly high demand as both a leader and director. He has performed as a principal with many British orchestras including the orchestra of the Royal Opera House, The Hallé, Royal Northern Sinfonia and Sinfonia Cymru, and is looking forward to leading the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for the first time in September. 

Passionate about historical performance, Samuel also enjoys collaborating regularly with many leading baroque ensembles including La Nuova Musica, Avison Ensemble and La Serenissima, with whom his recording of Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Violins will be released next year.

Samuel is extremely grateful to the Beares International Violin Society for their continued support of his career.