Zoe Beyers

Zoë Beyers began violin lessons with Noel Travers at the age of six. Since her debut aged eleven with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra under Paavo Järvi, she has performed with many distinguished conductors in the UK and Europe. 

In 2002, Zoë opened the St Petersburg Musical Olympus Festival with the St Petersburg Philharmonic, receiving critical acclaim for the première performance of Qilaatersorneq by Søren Nils Eichberg, and Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole.

Since coming to study in London in 2001, she has performed regularly as a soloist and chamber musician in Europe and at home in South Africa.  In 2000 she was the Gold Medallist in the UNISA Vodacom National String Competition in Pretoria.  Zoë was awarded an Associated Board International Scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music, where she was a pupil of Dr Felix Andrievsky, Gabrielle Lester and Gordan Nikolic. She won the Tagore Gold Medal, and was the RCM Yehudi Menuhin Scholar for the duration of her MMus degree.

In her final year of study, Zoë was made a Yeoman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians and appointed Sub-Principal 1 violin of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Zoë has given recitals at the Linbury Theatre, the Wigmore Hall and the Purcell Room in London.  She has appeared as a soloist in St John’s Smith Square, and performs and records as a chamber musician with the Hebrides Ensemble, the Fibonacci Sequence, the Endymion Ensemble and the Scottish Ensemble. Zoë has performed at the Cheltenham Festival, the City of London Festival, the BBC Proms, St Magnus Festival, Mendelssohn on Mull, the Edinburgh Festival, Bath Festival and Styriarte Festival in Graz, Austria. 

2011 saw Zoë return to South Africa for a month-long tour, working both as a soloist and collaborating with Francois du Toit, and as soloist and director with the University of Stellenbosch Camerata for a recording of early Mendelssohn works. In 2012, Zoë directed the Innovation Chamber Ensemble in a recording of Concerti Grossi by Wassenaer for Somme Records.