Lucy Russell

Lucy Russell is an internationally regarded violinist who is versatile, passionate and expert at what she does. A graduate from York University (UK), she fell in love with both the baroque violin and with quartet playing whilst still a student, and her life has been defined by her work on both instruments: performing, recording, and teaching a diverse array of repertoire as leader of the Fitzwilliam Quartet, and within the world of early music, her partnerships with John Butt on harpsichord and with Sezi Seskir, fortepiano. She has lead, played, recorded and toured with many of the mainstream early music ensembles.

Lucy believes in developing a breadth of musicianship including improvisation, folk music, dabbling with composition, creating new sound-worlds on her Hardanger violin (Norwegian national instrument), and the quest to communicate beyond the written page.

She teaches in several institutions: she is Professor of Baroque violin at the Royal College of Music, Honorary Professor of violin at St Andrews University, Director of the University Baroque Ensemble at York and is an Associate Artist at the Purcell School.  She is an extremely committed teacher, working holistically with her students, encouraging greater physical awareness, tension release and general well-being. 

She is currently training to become a Mindfulness Teacher with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield, and she plans to bring this approach to the lives of fellow musicians at all levels – enabling greater freedom, presence, and joy through music by cultivating a more astute sense of awareness and acceptance of self. 

Lucy and Sezi have performed together for several years and are enjoying making up for lost time during the pandemic!