Sir Yehudi Menuhin protégé to step into tutor’s shoes (From Croydon Guardian)

Sir Yehudi Menuhin protégé Chloe Hanslip to step into tutor’s shoes at Fairfield Halls concert

9:25am Wednesday 17th October 2012 in News By Victoria Bull

A violinist will emulate the tutor who discovered her, 50 years on from when he took to the stage at Fairfield Halls' first concert.

Chloe Hanslip was talent-spotted aged five by Sir Yehudi Menuhin, who was a solo violinist at Fairfield’s inaugural concert in 1962.

Five decades on from the concert, Miss Hanslip, who studied at Sir Menuhin’s specialist music school in Cobham, Surrey, will step into her tutor's shoes by taking the lead alongside the London Mozart Players Orchestra at Fairfield Halls 50th Anniversary concert.

Miss Hanslip, 25, said: "It is wonderful to think I will be playing at Fairfield 50 years to the day that Sir Menuhin played its very first concert - it will be extraordinary."

A true child prodigy, Miss Hanslip took up the violin aged two and had already recorded her first album by the time she was 13.

She said: "I am extremely lucky to have been able to do what I love for most of my life. It can get a bit crazy, but I wouldn’t change it at all."

In the fortnight leading up to the concert Miss Hanslip will also be performing in Finland and Prague, but said it is a real honour to be a part of Fairfield’s celebrations.

She said: "I have been watching and performing in concerts at Fairfield since I was a child - probably about 20 years - so I have had a long association with it."

The anniversary concert on November 2, will kick-start a series of celebratory shows including performances by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Miss Hanslip said of her performance: "It is going to be a very, very special concert and an exciting, wonderful evening."