Magdalena Loth-Hill

British-Polish violinist Magdalena Loth-Hill learned locally in Cumbria before accepting a place at Chetham’s School of Music to study with Jan Repko. She continued her studies at the Royal College of Music, London, with Itzhak Rashkovsky and Laura Samuel and later took up baroque violin with Adrian Butterfield and Lucy Russell. Magdalena graduated with first-class honours and went on to gain a Master’s degree with Distinction. She was awarded the 2015/16 Mills Williams Junior Fellowship at the RCM, a post she held while studying for an Artist Diploma in baroque violin. In March 2016, Magdalena was presented with the Mills Williams Medal.

At the RCM, Magdalena performed as soloist in Bach’s E major concerto, Brandenburg Concertos 4 and 5 and the Bach Double Violin Concerto. She led the RCM Baroque and Classical Orchestras, under Christopher Hogwood and Vittorio Ghielmi among others, and performed live on BBC Radio 3 In Tune. Magdalena has played the Mendelssohn and Bruch concertos with the City of Carlisle Orchestra, and has toured across Europe, and in North and South America, including Bolivia, where her two solo recitals as ‘Artist of the Festival’ officially opened the 2016 Misiones de Chiquitos Festival.

Magdalena has recorded with the Academy of Ancient Music and The English Concert. As soloist, she recorded works for the British Library’s ‘Georgians Revealed’ exhibition and exam pieces for the ABRSM syllabus. She joined Florilegium to record their 25th Anniversary CD, which was voted Gramophone Editor’s Choice for September 2016 and BBC Music Magazine Recording of the Month for October 2016. She performs with the Academy of Ancient Music, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The English Concert, La Serenissima, The London Handel Orchestra, English Baroque Soloists, Florilegium and Ex Cathedra, working with such conductors as Bernard Haitink, Vladimir Jurowski, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Mark Elder, Christopher Hogwood, Paul McCreesh, and John Wilson. 

Her string quartet, Consone, won the EUBO Development Fund Prize and a place on the European Emerging Ensembles programme at the 2015 York Early Music Festival International Young Artists Competition. The quartet went on to win the Ensemble Prize at the 2016 Royal Over-Seas League Competition and has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Brighton and York Early Music Festivals, the Buxton Festival and the Lake District Summer Music Festival as well as in Antwerp, Pavia, France and Bulgaria. The group made their Wigmore Hall debut in a shared recital in July 2017 and their debut CD was released on the Ambronay label in October 2018. They have been selected as BBC New Generation Artists for 2019-2021.

As an Orpheus Scholar at the RCM, Magdalena was supported by a Douglas and Hilda Simmonds Award and the Countess of Munster Trust. She plays an 1800 Betts violin, generously on loan from the Harrison Frank Family Foundation, and a late 17th-century Venetian instrument by an unknown maker.