Italian violinist Lucilla Rose Mariotti Banwell, born in 2001, is currently studying at the Royal College of Music in London for a Master in Performance with Mark Messenger, where she is an Anne & Brian Wadsworth Scholar. She is also supported by Help Musicians as Ian Fleming Award holder and by the Albert Cooper Music Charitable Trust. Next academic year, she will continue her studies at RCM for an Artist Diploma supported by a RCM scholarship.
From a young age, she has performed as a soloist in many concerts accompanied by chamber music ensembles and orchestras such as the New English Concert Orchestra at the Battle Proms Concerts (at Blenheim Palace, Burghley House, Hatfield House and Highclere Castle in the UK), the Harlow Symphony Orchestra, the Eastbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Tomáš Netopil, the Czech Philarmonic Orchestra Pardubice, the Francigena Chamber Orchestra, Nuove Assonanze Orchestra, the Strings of Maderna Orchestra, the Florence Symphonietta, the Orchestra Classica di Alessandria, Note Future Chamber Orchestra, among others. In 2021 she played the violin Concerto in Fa major by Thomas Linley Jr. in a premiere performance of the concert in Italy.
At RCM she has performed as a soloist the third mvt of Mozart violin concerto K216 with the RCM Chamber Orchestra in a live-streamed orchestral masterclass with Maxim Vengerov and she has played as a soloist the Sibelius Violin Concerto at the Conductors’ Podium event. She has also performed Navarra by Sarasate with Maxim Vengerov and other RCM students during a private Gala at RCM and then again with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall.
As a recitalist she has performed at Bloomsbury Festival and at the Lunchtime Concerts at Victoria & Albert Museum in London, at the Royal Palace of Gödöllő in Hungary with a world premiere performance of some pieces by Alfredo D’Ambrosio recorded live with the pianist Zsuzsanna Homor in a DVD by Achord Pictures, at Giardini La Mortella in Ischia at the Italian residence of composer William Walton, at Villa Lante in Rome thanks to Musicaimmagine and Institutum Romanum Finlandiae, at the Italian Institute of Culture in Budapest as prizewinner of Campus delle Arti 2017 Prize, at Pitti Palace in Florence thanks to Musica con le Ali, at Brera Museum in Milan during EXPO 2015, at Piaggio Foundation Museum thanks to Fonè Music Label, in Busseto thanks to Amici di Verdi, at Weill Recital Hall of Canergie Hall in New York as a prizewinner at the New York International Artists Competition and in many other venues across Italy and in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Hungary, San Marino and in the United Kingdom. She has also played in many occasions during the Holocaust Memorial Day at Fossoli Concentration Camp and at Oblate Library in Florence in a performance with the Italian actress Octavia Piccolo, at the National Museum of Italian Ebraism and Shoah and at the Este Castle in Ferrara, in schools and in other venues. She has also performed in recitals on some Royal Caribbean Cruises.
Some of her performances have been broadcasted by the Vatican Radio, Czech Radio and Venice Classic Radio. In 2017 Lucilla took part in the TV show on RAI1 “Prodigi 2017: La Musica è Vita” sponsored by UNICEF. In 2020 and 2023 she participated in the project "European Festival of Soloists" organized by the Delegation of the European Union, the embassies of EU Member States in Venezuela and El Sistema as Italian representative. In 2023, she took part in the International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove in Cornwall.
She has won numerous national and international competitions including the 59th Kocian International Violin Competition in Ústí nad Orlicí in Czech Republic, the Josef Muzika International Violin Competition in Nová Paka receiving the prize for the best performance of the contemporary Czech piece "Dža More" by Silvia Bodorova, the ESO 32nd Young Soloist Competition in Eastbourne receiving also the St Cecilia Bequest Award for the best performance of a musician under 18 and many other competitions in Italy and abroad. In 2019 she was awarded the "Maura Giorgetti" scholarship by winning the Young Musicians Competition organized by the Filarmonica del Teatro alla Scala.
Lucilla has developed her musical personality also thanks to other mentors who include Vilmos Szabadi, Marco Fornaciari, Edoardo Oddone, Alberto Bologni, Maurizio Sciarretta, Václav Hudeček and Jiří Fišer. She also studied with Salvatore Accardo for two years at the Stauffer Center for Strings in Cremona and at Chigiana Academy in Siena. In 2020 she graduated summa cum laude and special mention from the State Music Conservatory "Bruno Maderna" in Cesena.
