Jennifer Coombes began the viola when she was seven years old, and at thirteen started Junior Trinity with Devorina Gamalova. She received a full Government Music and Dance Scholarship for her last two years, and was awarded numerous prizes including the Vivien Joseph String Quartet prize three years in a row. She is currently a third year undergraduate at the Royal College of Music studying with Andriy Viytovych. Performing recitals in Surrey and London, Jennifer has made concerto appearances with the Guildford YMCA Orchestra and Situation Opera Orchestra. She has participated in masterclasses with Lawrence Power, Jan Repko, Nicholas Pendlebury and the Wihan Quartet amongst others. Jenny is a founder member of the Eilon Quartet which was formed at the RCM last year, and with whom she has several upcoming concerts and recitals. Her orchestral experiences include playing as principal viola in the RCM's Opera and Symphony Orchestras and Sinfonietta, the London Irish Symphony Orchestra, Surrey Mahler Orchestra, Situation Opera and Surrey County Youth Orchestra, and have taken her to many European countries and to venues such as The Royal Albert Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Festival Hall and the Rudolfinum Concert Hall, Prague. For the last two years, Jenny has performed as a soloist and chamber musician at the Academia Internacional de Musica in Solsona, Spain. Her future performances include the RCM Martinu series, solo recitals in Surrey, recitals with the Eilon Quartet in London and the RCM Rising Stars chamber music series at Cadogan Hall.

Lukas Kmit  Associate Principal
Lukas Kmit was born in Presov, Slovakia and studied at the Kosice Conservatoire. He won first prize at the Competition of Slovak Conservatoires and at the international Talents for Europe competition. He also took 2nd prize at the North London Festival competition and 3rd prize at competition "Premio Geminiani" in Italy. He has played concertos with orchestras in Slovakia (State Philharmonic Kosice, Sinfonietta Zilina), Vienna Beethoven Ensemble and Visegrad Youth Symphony Orchestra. He also participated at summer courses Trenta under the patronage of Vienna Philharmony, AIMS in Spain and Upbeat in Croatia. He has given performances in Villa Wertheimstein in Vienna and National Gallery in London. Recently Lukas was awarded special prize for the best performance of contemporary composition at Kenneth Page Viola Competition. Lukas is currently student at the Royal College of Music under Andriy Viytovych.

Helen Goatly  Associate Principal

Helen Goatly Studied the Viola at the Royal College of Music, where her teachers included Roger Best, Ivo-Jan Van der Werff, and Andriy Viytoviych. Whilst a student, she was the recipient of numerous scholarships and prizes - most notably the Kathleen Long Chamber Music Prize, and the Fishmongers Beckwith Scholarship. Since graduating, Helen has been freelancing with some of the country's leading Orchestras, such as the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. She is also a highly sought after Chamber Musician.

Ruth Clarke-Irons

Ruth started learning the piano and violin aged 10, and quickly realised that music was what she wanted to do. She went on to learn the flute and the viola as well as teaching herself the guitar. Ruth then started singing lessons and went on to Exeter University as a first study vocalist, before taking an MA in Musical Theatre at Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Here she concentrated on singing, taking work in a variety of styles including operatic, jazz and musical theate. Ruth is also Musical Director for Principal Theate Company, who put on outdoor Shakespeare productions in London during the Summer. She now takes music workshops for children all over London, keeps up work as an Actor-Musician, as well as playing orchestrally with Situation Opera.

Raisa Zapryanova

Raisa Zapryanova is a Bulgarian violist who made her debut at the age of 15 as a soloist with Pazardjik State Symphony Orchestra and since than has appeared as a soloist with Plovdiv Symphony Orchestra and Dobrin Petkov Symphony Orchestra. Having just entered her twenties, Raisa has received several awards from national and international competitions and has performed at such venues as the Southbank Centre, Granada Town Hall, Maestro Georgy Atanassov Hall and Plovdiv Concert Hall.  A passionate chamber musician she has had the rare opportunity to perform in ensembles with Andrew Duckles, Paul Yarburough, Gancho Ganev, Anet Artinian, prof. Nedyalcho Todorov, Kiril Grozdanov, Stela Dinkova. Both as a participant of International youth orchestras as well as a member of Plovdiv State Symphony Orchestra, Raisa has been honored to work under the baton of Marek Pijarowski, Sir Neville Marriner, Georgy Dimitrov, Grigor Palikarov. She has been taught in master classes by well recognized musicians at festivals all over Europe - Mario Hossen, Elisaveta Kazakova, Kevork Mardirosian, Elisaveta Staneva, Wolfgang Kloss, Paul Yarbrough, Bojidar Noev and Andrew Duckles. A pupil of prof. Nedyalcho Todorov and Tatyana Krasteva she currently studies with the renowned Rivka Golani as a Trinity College London scholarship student.

Clara Bradbury-Rance

Clara Bradbury-Rance was born in the east end of London and moved to Bath at the age of 7. With musical parents who quizzed her on composers and styles and played radio 3 in every room of the house, she started playing the piano at a young age, and then picked up the violin a few years later, which was her first instrument until she "saw the light" and switched to the viola at 14. Clara led the viola section in the Bath Schools' Philharmonic Orchestra for 4 years, where she met some great friends and like-minded musicians with whom she started playing chamber music. After finishing her A levels Clara put down her viola and all common sense and jetted off on a solo trip around the world for 6 months, visiting South-East Asia, Australasia, North and South America. Back in England and studying for a BA in French and Film Studies at Exeter University, Clara is enjoying making the most of the different opportunities that university has to offer, both academically and socially. Having been awarded a music scholarship, she spends much of her time playing music in various ensembles, and has particularly enjoyed performing in a candlelit performance of Mozart's Requiem. Clara is the founder and convenor of the Exeter University String Quartet, which plays at various events including weddings and University balls.