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| Esther Abrami |
The French violinist Esther Abrami, who studied at Chetham's School of Music, the Royal College of Music and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, is described as something of a 'media sensation': she has over 400,000 followers on Instagram alone. Her 2025 album, Women on the Sony Classical label and made with performers including the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra includes music by women composers ranging from film composers Anne Dudley and Rachel Portman to Ethel Smyth and Pauline Viardot, plus the premiere recording of Irish composer Ina Boyle’s Violin Concerto. All this sounds wonderfully admirable.
However, the review of Women in The Strad is less convinced. Reviewer Charlotte Gardner describes the album as "A triumph of slickness over substance from a social media star", and she goes on to comment, "It’s all very sincerely but also slickly performed and presented. It also all sounds very produced, and significantly more single-flavoured in all regards than such a span of periods, genres and instrumental constellations had the potential to be."
Now there is a chance to hear for yourself. On 5 March 2025, Esther Abrami is giving a recital for International Women's Day at the Institut français in South Kensington on 5 March 2026. No word as to what she is performing, we can hope music by women composers from the album.
Further details from the Institut français website.
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