Romana Bevington

I started violin aged 9, inspired by my aunt, violinist in Dexys Midnight Runners. I quickly developed a love of orchestral playing, though the local county Saturday morning and holiday schemes.  I discovered the viola when I was 15, whose timbre and more physical requirements were like rocket fuel for practice and progress, leading to happy years of playing in the National Youth Orchestra and alongside my degree in Classics at Cambridge. I rejoined the music scene back home in Bristol, where today two orchestras and two small string groups provide a variety of playing and a wonderful release from my day job as Head of Corporate Tax for a major UK insurance group.

The collective commitment at BHCO allows us to work in detail and to develop a kind of hive mind for amazing spontaneous musical magic in concerts. Beethoven features heavily in my highlights with BHCO, to date particularly the 5th and 9th Symphonies and violin concerto.