Biography

Rondo is a professional violinist based in Bristol, and one of the most versatile players on our books. He started at the age of seven under the Oxford violin tutor Steward Attwood, read Popular & World Music at the University of Leeds, and took advanced violin and jazz lessons there with Omar Puente – one of the leading jazz violinists in the country.

What makes him unusual is the sheer breadth of what he can play. His song list runs to well over three hundred pieces and covers classical, pop, soul and Motown, R&B, jazz, Celtic folk, klezmer, tango and Bollywood. He has toured with folk and jazz bands, played tango evenings, spent three summers touring France with a puppet theatre company, and performed at Glastonbury. He is also a regular at the Bristol klezmer sessions, which tells you something about the kind of musician he is.

Alongside performing he composes for film and television, with a Distinction in his MA in Composition for Film & TV, writing for choir, string quartet, orchestra and electronics. That composer’s ear shows in how he arranges a song for solo violin – he is not simply playing the tune.

For your day it is all very simple. He usually plays solo with backing tracks so you get a full sound from one musician, and he can bring in other players from his Bristol network if you would like a duo or a trio. He arrives with his own speaker, sets up in fifteen or twenty minutes, and plays whatever you have chosen. If the song that matters to you is not on the list, he will learn it. And if you want something rather different, he is a loop pedal player who can build layers of violin live – lovely for a drinks reception, and something guests remember.