Shirly Laub / violin

Shirly Laub was born in 1974 and started to play the violin at the age of four. Encouraged by Isaac Stern, she continued to study the violin and her brilliant playing won her prizes in various youth contests. She studied under Clemens Quatacker at the Royal Music Conservatory in Brussels, where she graduated with distinction and was awarded First Prize and a Higher Certificate for violin. In 1996 she received her ‘Performing Musician' diploma under Wiktor Liberman in Utrecht. She was a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra from 1991 to 1998. In 1997 she was awarded the title of ‘Jeune Soliste des communautés des radios publiques de langue française' and in 2001 was a ‘Juventus' prizewinner, with a Council of Europe award. She makes recordings of the combination of violin and piano, and of chamber music, and as first violinist for various radio stations including Musique3, Klara, Concertzender (NL), Radio Classique France, Suisse Romande, Radio Canada, RAI and BBC, and on the Explicit! and Fuga Liberia labels. In 2001 she joined the New York Silk Road Ensemble with whom she played chamber music with Yo Yo Ma and traditional musicians from Central Asia. She worked as a solo violinist for the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from 1998 to 2005 and was regularly invited to perform as leader of the orchestra at Covent Garden opera house, and in the orchestras of the BBC, Liverpool, and various Belgian and Spanish symphony orchestras. In addition to being a soloist and chamber musician (she is a founder member of Oxalys), which enables her to perform in some of the world's most prestigious halls, she is also a professor at the Royal Music Conservatory in Brussels, where she teaches violin.