Ayla Şahin, violin (Brighton, UK) completed her B.A at the Royal Academy of Music with first class honors, where she studied with Jack Liebeck and Joshua Fisher. She subsequently studied at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg with Rainer Schmidt, and is continuing her M.A with him at the Musik Akademie Basel. Ayla performs regularly across the UK and Europe at venues including Wigmore Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Kings Place, KKL Luzerne, Saffron Hall and St George’s Bristol, and at the BBC Proms, Aurora Chamber Music, Nume, Festival Jong Talent Schiermonnikoog, LacMus, Swaledale and Victoria International Arts festivals. As a chamber musician she has collaborated with artists such as Tom Poster, Adrian Brendel and Sheku Kanneh-Mason and has recorded for the NPR ‘Tiny Desk’ series as well as a ‘Carnival of the Animals’ disk for Decca Classics. She has attended masterclasses with Andraś Keller, Robert Levin, Ilya Gringolts, Philippe Graffin, Ulf Wallin, Pavel Vernikov, Mi-Kyung Lee at IMS Prussia Cove and Accademia Musicale Chigiana. Ayla is grateful to be supported by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, Stiftung Lyra, Melinda Esterházy de Galantha Stiftung and the Musik Akademie Basel. She plays on a Johannes Cuypers violin on generous loan from Beare’s International Violin Society.