Jessica has recorded and toured internationally as a professional violinist and member of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and Principal 2nd violin of the Orchestra of St. John’s for twenty-five years.

Combining performing, teaching, examining, writing, adjudicating and editing Jessica has a persuasive portfolio career. She regularly presents seminars on string and musical education matters and is a string consultant and examiner for ABRSM. Her Best of Grade 1-5 (violin) books are a series of current and past exam pieces and 80 Graded Violin Studies (in two volumes) are published by Faber. She has written articles for the Music Teacher magazine including her ‘notes’ on violin repertoire and ‘behind the examiner’s desk’. She is a mentor on ESTA’s (European String Teacher’s Association) PGCE teaching course.

Jessica is passionate about playing and teaching music in a variety of styles and has worked with Madonna, Led Zeppelin, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Opera House. She has performed in a variety of venues including Carnegie and Wigmore Halls, Sydney and Royal Opera Houses and pop arenas in London and Dubai.

Coming from a family of innovative string teachers, who were the first to start the Suzuki method in Europe, Jessica played in the Cork, Irish and European Youth Orchestras before moving to London to take up a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music where she had chamber music lessons with the Amadeus String Quartet. She is Head of Strings at Eltham College, London and taught violin and viola at Junior Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London for fifteen years. She has been a tutor on National Youth Orchestra Outreach days, gives classes on orchestral technique, works with the Autistic society and regularly plays chamber music.

In her spare time, she has developed a love of sailing around Suffolk and Dartmouth and across calm seas with her husband.