Yehudi Menuhin School Appoints First Female Director of Music

Violist Rosalind Ventris will step into the role

The UK's Yehudi Menuhin School (YMS) has announced that violist Rosalind Ventris will serve as its next Director of Music — as the first woman ever to be appointed to the position. She will succeed Ashley Wass in September 2025.

Ventris comes to the role from several jointly-held positions as Director of Performance at the University of Oxford, Professor of Viola at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and Artistic Director at the Cowbridge Music Festival.

A recitalist at venues including Wigmore Hall and the Royal Festival Hall, Ventris has appeared as a soloist with groups including the European Union Chamber Orchestra, Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonia Cymru, London Mozart Players, English Chamber Orchestra, English Symphony Orchestra, l’Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, and the Belgian National Orchestra.

A regular member of the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, Ventris is also the violist of Trio Anima. She has appeared alongside figures and ensembles including Mitsuko Uchida, Tabea Zimmermann, Llŷr Williams, the Nash Ensemble, the Arcanto Quartett, the Endellion Quartet, the Marmen Quartet, Barry Douglas, John O’Conor, Gerhard Schultz, the Sitkovetsky Trio, Hilary Hahn, and the Benedetti Elschenbroich Grynyuk Trio.

In 2023, Ventris released her debut album, SOLA, on the Delphian Records label. The disc, which covers music by leading women composers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, was Editor’s Choice in BBC Music Magazine and on Presto Music, Instrumental Choice in BBC Music Magazine, a Guardian 'pick of the week', and appeared in 'The Best Classical Music Albums of 2023' compilations in The Sunday Times and Gramophone Magazine.

"I am absolutely delighted to take up the role of Director of Music at The Yehudi Menuhin School," Ventris said. "Menuhin's holistic ethos when he set up the school, fusing artistic excellence with social conscience and intellectual curiosity, is one I believe in passionately as a musician and educator."

"I am so excited to take Menuhin's vision forward into the future, working alongside the school's talented staff and students," she added. "I feel enormously privileged to be entrusted with this role to nurture and empower these exceptional young musicians."

"We are thrilled that Rosalind will be joining us as Director of Music," said Robin Harskin, head of YMS. "Rosalind is a proven performer and pedagogue of the highest order, but, even more importantly, she is a deeply empathetic person who wholeheartedly supports Menuhin's ideals for the school and for the role of music in shaping a better world."