Alma Zupan is our 2024/25 recipient of the Chelsea Arts Club Trust Award for Music.
Alma Zupan is a Slovenian classical violinist based in Dulwich, London. She is currently training under the mentorship of world-renowned soloist and chamber musician Lana Trotovšek on the Masters of Music programme at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. She is a proud scholar of the Chelsea Arts Club Trust, as well as Trinity College, Colyn Blythe Fund and Ustanova Klasika. She has a wide range of solo, chamber and orchestral performance experiences, at venues such as Old Royal Naval College Chapel, Cutty Sark, The Great Hall of the Salzburg Mozarteum in Salzburg, The Queen’s House, Church of St James in London, Cankar Hall, Krizanke Church in Ljubljana and others. She has played alongside professionals in various orchestra as part of first violins, such as the Welsh National Opera Orchestra and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Alongside her classical music expertise, she also has experience in collaborating with musicians from other genres, such as jazz (Bruno Heinen, Heidi Vogel and others), improvisation (she studies improvisation with Douglas Finch and has previously participated in his projects at the New Lights Festival) and traditional Balkan and Romani Music. She also has experience in collaborating with contemporary composers and multi- disciplinary artists and has played with Trinity Laban’s Contemporary Music Group at the Daryl Runswick Competition for composition and collaborated with composer Amir Konjani and others. As an eager chamber musician she is currently playing in multiple chamber groups at Trinity Laban, including the Meridian Ensemble. She plays on a beautiful violin crafted by Andreas Hudelmayer.
Alma began her violin studies aged 6 and has received mentorship and masterclasses at many musical summer festivals and throughout her studies. She is grateful for the knowledge and guidance from many exceptional musicians, such as Lana Trotovšek, Elena Denisova, Rakhi Singh, Žiga Brank, members of the Carducci Quartet, Ofer Falk, Richard Crabtree, Gorjan Košuta, Michael Frischenschlager, Armin Sešek, Andreja Zupanc, Volodja Balžalorsky, David Cohen and others. After graduating from the Ljubljana Music and Ballet Conservatory aged 17, where she participated in and won various Gold or First prizes at state and international competitions, she then obtained a First Class degree with Distinction in History and Anthropology from Goldsmihts, University of Arts London. She then returned to professional musical studies in 2023. She loves to combine academic research and writing alongside her musical endeavours. She currently writes seasonal articles for the Slovenian musicians' magazine Glasna published by the organisation Jeunesses Musicales Slovenia.
As she is establishing her musical teaching practice, she is also contemplating her Masters thesis which will be published next year, in which she wants to explore the multidimensional complexities of the teacher-student relationship. She is grateful to the Chelsea Arts Club Trust for allowing her to pursue her dream of immersing herself in studying the violin again.