Mandhira de Saram

Mandhira de Saram was born in London. After completing her primary education in Sri Lanka, she was awarded a music scholarship to North London Collegiate School where she completed her secondary education. She was also a Leverhulme Scholar at the Junior Royal Academy of Music where she performed both as a violinist and pianist, also taking classes in composition and conducting. Her violin teachers have included Igor Petrushevsky, Howard Davis and Levon Chillingirian.

Mandhira graduated with 1st class honours from the University of Oxford with a high 1st in performance and was the winner of the Worcester College Arts Prize for the highest result in an arts subject. Here she was the leader of several orchestras and chamber groups including Ensemble Isis which specializes in contemporary music.

Working professionally as a freelance violinist, she appears frequently as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral violinist around the UK and abroad. 2011 saw international solo/duo tours in the USA, India and her country of origin, Sri Lanka. Other significant performances include venues such as the Sheldonian Theatre and Holywell Music Rooms in Oxford, Music at Wotton House Series, Swaledale Festival and at various venues in London such as Cadogan Hall, The Forge Camden, Queen's Gate Terrace Concert series, Rosslyn Hill Chapel and the Handel Room at the Foundling Museum. She also gave a recital of unaccompanied violin music at the Garden Court Barristers' Chambers of Lincoln's Inn.

The Ligeti Quartet is pleased to welcome violinist Patrick Dawkins as the newest member of the team.

A violinist and Baroque violinist based in London, Patrick read Music at the University of Oxford, and in 2010 completed an MA in performance at the Royal Academy of Music. His violin teachers were Howard Davis and Tomotada Soh. At the Academy he took an interest in chamber music, contemporary music, and historical performance. As a member of the Grove String Quartet, he received coaching from members of the Alberni, Badke, Endellion, Kreutzer, Škampa and Vanbrugh quartets. He played with groups such as the Manson Ensemble and the Period Instrument Baroque Orchestra. He enjoys teaching and holds an LRAM diploma from the Academy.

Viola player Richard Jones has recently completed his Masters Degree at the Royal College of Music. He previously studied at York University where he graduated with First Class Honours and was awarded the David Blake prize.

Richard has given many performances around the UK and abroad, in chamber ensembles and orchestras at venues such as Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Cadogan Hall, Conway Hall, the National Portrait Gallery and also at Exit Festival in Serbia.

He has received master classes from Ivo-Jan von der Werff and Kazuki Sawa and ensemble coaching from members of the Brodsky, Chilingirian, Fitzwilliam, Henschel and Lindsay Quartets.

While his interests are varied, Richard is a keen exponent of new music and enjoys working with composers, improvisers and animateurs. He collaborates regularly with renowned experimental composers such as Christian Wolff, Michael Parsons and Tom Johnson.

Canadian cellist Valerie Welbanks is currently based in London, where she appears regularly with the Marsyas Trio, one of the few flute, cello and piano trios in the world, and the Ligeti Quartet, which specialises in contemporary music. She also plays in several operas each year as part of the Dionysus Ensemble. Valerie completed a Masters in Music Performance in 2008 at the Royal Academy of Music in London, graduating with distinction. During her two years in Philip Sheppard’s class, she developed her interest in cross-disciplinary arts. In the 2008-2009 season, Valerie produced and appeared in the play La Suggia – Velvet and Steel, a new production she initiated in collaboration with Bulgarian dramaturge Miryana Dimitrova. More recently, Valerie was seen in Mahdi Yahya’s play The Emperor Self.

Valerie studied with Leslie Snider at the Conservatoire de musique de Québec, where she obtained a collegiate music diploma in 2003 and an undergraduate diploma in music interpretation in 2006. Thanks to several generous scholarship awards, Valerie has taken summer courses at the Lake District Summer Music Academy, the Toronto Summer Music Academy and the Orford Arts Centre under the tutelage of Janos Starker, and the Banff Centre for the Arts.

Valerie has appeared as a recitalist in Canada, South Africa and the UK and has performed concertos with the Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec and the Sinfonia de Quebec. Valerie has started the PhD course at Goldsmiths College under the supervision of Russian cellists Alexander Ivashkin and Natalia Pavlutskaya.