Fiona Alexander grew up in Stockport, where she started playing the violin at the age of six, and in Ilkley, Yorkshire. She went on to become a pupil of Eta Cohen and leader of the City of Leeds Youth Orchestra, with which she also performed as concerto soloist, and a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.
At the Royal Northern College of Music Fiona studied with Richard Deakin and devoted much of her time to chamber music, winning the Helen Porthouse Prize for violin and the John Barbirolli and Terence Weill Prizes for string quartet. She followed this with a postgraduate year at the Royal Academy of Music, studying with Maurice Hasson and the Amadeus Quartet. While still a student Fiona played regularly with the Britten Pears orchestra and attended the Britten Pears String Quartet Course for young professionals.
After spending a couple of years with the Ulster Orchestra, Fiona joined the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in 1993. She is a member of the SCO quartet, Quartz, and over the years has played with many other orchestras, including the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, Royal Ballet Sinfonia, Scottish Ballet Orchestra and the Scottish Ensemble.
When not making music, Fiona is at her happiest running by the sea, balancing on her head doing yoga, and pottering about the garden, where she enjoys watching her plants - and two sons - grow ever taller.
