Born in Leeuwarden, Simone Lamsma was five when she took up the violin, and she started lessons with Davina van Wely when she was nine. She became a student of Hu Kun at the Yehudi Menuhin School and later at the Royal Academy of Music. She also worked with Maurice Hasson. She graduated from the Royal Academy and won several academic awards. Since her professional debut in 1999, Lamsma has pursued an active schedule as a soloist and recitalist, performing concertos with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, L'Orchestre National de France, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, the Residentie Orkest den Haag, and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, among many others. She was named an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2011, and she is based in The Netherlands. Lamsma performs a wide repertoire of over 60 violin concertos, ranging from Mozart to Shostakovich, and she has recorded for Naxos and Challenge Classics. ~ Blair Sanderson