Biography

Vera Beumer (b. 2001) was born in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and started playing the violin at age seven. She now lives and performs in both the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

From 2010 to 2018 she studied at the University of the Arts Utrecht in the young talent class (Academie Muzikaal Talent) with Liesbeth Ackermans en Chris Duindam. At the age of 17, Vera moved to London to continue her musical studies at the Royal College of Music. During her undergraduate studies she learnt with Daniel Rowland, Gaby Lester and Alina Ibragimova. Her studies were generously supported by an RCM scholarship as well as the VanDenEnde Foundation. In 2022, she graduated with First Class Honours.
Vera continued at the Royal College of Music for her Master’s degree, graduating with Distinction in 2024. Her postgraduate studies were also kindly supported by scholarships from the RCM and the Cultuurfonds.

From 2016-2018 Vera lead the Netherlands Youth String Orchestra (NJSO), which sparked her love for orchestral playing. During her studies at the Royal College of Music, she received many opportunities to lead, co-lead and perform as principal second violin of the RCM Symphony Orchestra. During her final term she was invited to lead the RCM Symphony in the Royal Festival Hall. She further gained experience as an orchestral player during her time as a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra, as well as a first violin as part of the English National Opera’s Evolve Scheme during her undergraduate degree.
In 2021 she was a member of the London Philharmonic Orchestra Foyle Future Firsts Scheme. She now performs with the LPO regularly on a freelance basis and has performed as Principal and Co-principal 2nd violin. For the 2024-2025 season Vera was part of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra Academy, during which she performed as a member of the orchestra in the 1st and 2nd violins.

Currently, she is on trial with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra for Principal 2nd violin and with the Philharmonia Orchestra for tutti 1st violin.

Vera is a passionate chamber musician. As a young teenager she was part of a string quartet that received long-term coaching from Alexander Pavlovsky (Jerusalem Quartet), as well as having had many lessons with members of the Borodin, Pavel Haas, and Emerson quartets amongst others. During her undergraduate degree she was part of a string quartet with whom she won the Royal College of Music String quartet competition in 2020. Since 2021, she has been a regular participant at IMS Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music and looks forward to returning again this summer.

As a soloist, she performed with several orchestras from the age of 11, including Netherlands Youth String Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and Philips orkest.

Vera plays a 1760 Carlo Ferdinando Landolfi Violin kindly on loan from the Nederlands Muziekinstrumenten fonds (NMF).