Simone Lamsma, born in the Netherlands in October 1985, started to play the violin at the age of five at the Northern College of Music in the Netherlands in a special music project for young children and subsequently at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam , with Professor Davina van Wely.

In 1997 Simone moved to England to continue her studies at The Yehudi Menuhin School with Professor Hu Kun, with whom she studied until 2004 at The Royal Academy of Music in London . Currently in her 4th year of a Bmus course, Simone is now a student of Maurice Hasson.

During her studies Simone was chosen to perform in masterclasses with many renowned musicians as Thomas Brandis, Zakhar Bron, Mauricio Fuks, Herman Krebbers, Yehudi Menuhin, Yfrah Neaman, Julian Rachlin, Sylvia Rosenberg, Mstislav Rostropovitch and Zvi Zetlin.

Simone has won prizes in national and international violin competitions and summer schools, such as 1st prize “Benjamin Britten Prize” and the Special Prize for the best performance of Michael Berkeley’s ‘ Persistant Memory’ 2004 , 1st prize “Etienette Alvares Correa” and the prize for the best interpretation of the compulsory work ‘Fantasia’ by Hans Kox in the 19th Dutch National Violin Competition 2003, 6th prize Concours International Long-Thibaud 2002, 3rd prize Yehudi Menuhin Competition Senior Section 2002, and joint 2nd prize London Oratory International Violin Competition 2001.

In 2004 Simone was chosen to represent the Royal Academy of Music in a concert with EC4 Music, during the Genius of the Violin Festival in London and she was invited to give a solo performance during the 32 nd ESTA European Conference in Rotterdam. Future engagements include a concert with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, concerts in Venezuela, England and the Netherlands, and a CD recording with Naxos.

Simone performed as a soloist as well as a chamber musician in many major venues in England, The Netherlands, USA, France, Germany and China . As a soloist she appeared with many orchestras, most recently with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis. Others include the London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Guildhall School, the Hague Residentie Orchestra, the Dutch Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Northern Dutch Orchestra and the Haydn Youth String Orchestra and, during violin competitions, with several other renowned orchestras, playing concerti of Arnold, Britten, Bruch, Dvorak, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Paganini, Saint-Saлns, Shostakovich, and Tchaikovsky.

Simone was involved in chamber music from a very young age. She was admitted to the Haydn Youth String Orchestra at the age of seven, already playing important works of the orchestral repertoire. She is and has been a committed member of many successful chamber music ensembles since 1997. In 1999 she performed as one of the soloists in Elgar’s Introduction & Allegro for Strings, among others under the direction of Lord Yehudi Menuhin. In 2003 she won the Royal Academy ’s “Wilfrid Parry Prize” for Beethoven violin/piano duo with Yurie Miura and in 2005 the “Harold Craxton (ensembles with piano) Prize”.

Simone was awarded with scholarships and prizes of the Royal Academy of Music, KPMG, the Hattori Foundation, MBF (award for under 18s), the Prins Bernhard Cultuur Foundation and the Dutch Foundation for Amateurkunst and Podiumkunsten. She is currently supported by the generosity of the Dutch VandenEnde Foundation.

Since 1995 several foundations have been so kind to lend Simone instruments. As part of the 1 st prize of the Dutch National Violin Competition 2003, Simone performs on a 1773 Ferd. Gagliano violin, by kind permission of the Foundation Studiefonds Oskar Back, for a period of 6 years.