About — Shiry Rashkovsky

Lauded by The Strad for her “thrilling and exuberant” Royal Festival Hall debut, Shiry pursues an international and diverse career.

Her recording of Kate Whitley’s Viola Concerto for NMC Recordings was hailed as “fearless” by the Guardian, while her EP, “Erlkönig/Erl-King” (October House Records) was featured on BBC Radio 3’s ‘New Music Show’. She regularly performs in the world’s greatest concert halls, and has broadcast for BBC1, 2 and 4, WQXR, and RAI.

In demand as a chamber musician, Shiry is invited to international festivals including Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music, where she has performed with Adrian Brendel, Ian Brown, Thomas Gould, Viviane Hagner, Pekka Kuusisto and David Waterman, among others. Notable chamber partners include Abel Selaocoe, Gabriel Prokofiev, Huw Watkins, Fenella Humphreys and the Sacconi Quartet; and she has performed live on radio with Shmuel Ashkenasi, Vadim Gluzman, and Shlomo Mintz.

Dedicated to innovation in programming, Shiry is the founder and Artistic Director of Up Close and Musical, which has enjoyed sold-out concerts from genre-defying artists and has been featured in Classical Music Magazine, The Strad, BBC Radio 3, Scala Radio and other major outlets. New commissions are at the centre of her debut album April/everything (Delphian Records, April 2027), including a viola quintet by Errollyn Wallen (generously supported by the Vaughan Williams and Hinrichsen Foundations and Marchus Trust) and a viola/electronics work by Ben Nobuto. Other recent commissions include a viola/voice duo composed by and recorded with Héloïse Werner, and a words-and-music programme by Jessica Duchen celebrating the cross-cultural friendship between Ralph Vaughan Williams and Jewish violist Lionel Tertis, recently performed at Three Choirs Festival and featured in The Strad and on Scala Radio.

Shiry joined the String Faculty at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2024. She obtained her ArtDip and Masters at the RCM, and BA (Social and Political Sciences) at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge.