| Biography | Rebekah Reid is a concert violinist specialising in classical and jazz repertoire, improvisation and composition. Her ethos and goals as an artist are to break down the traditional conventions, stereotypes and boundaries evident within classical music.
Originally from South East London Rebekah began learning the violin at age 3 and attended the Junior department of the Royal Academy of Music, studying with Ben Wragg and Igor Petrushevski. She continued her studies at the Royal Northern College of Music under Catherine Yates and Pavel Fischer. Rebekah is currently based in Manchester working as a freelance musician and violin teacher.
Reid performs regularly as a classical soloist, chamber and orchestral musician in the UK and abroad. She has played in a number of British and European orchestras with concerts in prestigious venues such as the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Buckingham Palace and Suntory Hall in Japan. She is a member of the 'Chineke! Orchestra' Europes first BME classical orchestra founded in 2015 by the renowned double bassist, Chi-chi Nwanoku,OBE. Rebekah has performed with the ensemble across the UK and Europe for the past two years, with notable performances at the BBC Proms in August 2017 and at the Barbican performing Max Richter's score for 'Waltz With Bashir' live, alongside a screening of the film on 13th May 2018.
Creating original and new music is Rebekah's passion and primary focus and she collaborates with a variety of contemporary and experimental ensembles. She performs as a soloist with jazz bands and recorded a series of live improvisations with the improv group Those Moving Pictures in 2014. In May 2018 Rebekah supported internationally renowned US composer and saxophonist Matana Roberts and experimental musician and composer Kelly Jayne Jones at the Portico Library in Manchester. She performed a set of solo violin loops exploring solo classical repertoire, jazz, free improvisation an electronic dance music.
Rebekah is lead violinist in 'The Untold Orchestra', a large collaborative ensemble set up in 2016 by pianist Sam Davies. Since then the project has evolved from an 8 piece collective to a full - scale Symphony Orchestra. In March 2017 the Untold Orchestra supported Bill Laurance from Snarky Puppy at the RNCM, performing original material composed by band members.
Reid is also a member of the 10 piece jazz ensemble The Forgotten Fairground which features trumpet, flute, voice, rhythm section and string quartet. The ensemble performs original compositions by trumpeter and band leader Matthew Gough. Last year the ensemble recorded their debut album with Emmy award-winning composer Andy Bush and Abbey Road Studios sound engineer Jonathan Allen producing the album.
Rebekah is also involved in cross genre multimedia art projects. Over the past three years she has collaborated with the contemporary dance group Tangled Dance Company on a number of projects. Her role within the group is to compose music for the projects and perform live with the dancers. Their projects are often performed in unusual and interesting spaces in the North of England such as Heaton Hall, Whitworth Park, Canon Hall and Houghton Tower.
Another recent multimedia art collaboration has been with 'Video Jam' in their latest takeover event at the Manchester Museum in October (as part of Manchester Science Festival 2017). Video Jam is a unique event series which commissions musicians to compose and perform live original accompaniments for short films. Rebekah composed music for the film 'Josephine and the leopard' by filmmakers Webb-Ellis and Jade Montserrat.
Rebekah is a founding member of the string loop pedal duo 'Täpp' alongside cellist Polly Virr. The duo officially launched in February 2017 and have been selected as Jazz North Artists for 2018-2019. |