Artistic Directors - Zahra Benyounes & Emily Holland
Zahra and Emily have been Artistic Directors of SDSM since 2017 taking over the role from the festival founders, Jeremy Young and Daniel Bhattacharya.
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They met in the 1st year undergraduate at the RNCM - both searching for a TV to watch Neighbours - and have been good friends ever since. They founded the Benyounes Quartet together with violist Sara Roberts and cellist Kim Vaughan in 2006 and performed across Europe for 16 happy years. The Benyounes Quartet first performed in Alfriston in 2008.
Zahra is in demand as a chamber, session and orchestral musician. As first violinist fo the Benyounes quartet she performed internationally at leading venues and festivals including Wigmore Hall, Vienna Konzerthaus, Verbier, Aldeburgh and Aix-en-Provence Festivals and given multiple radio broadcasts.The quartet's diverse discography received widespread critical acclaim and they premiered numerous works for string quartet by pioneering contemporary composers such as Paul Ruders, Simon Bainbridge and John Woolrich.
Further experience as a chamber musician has led to collaborations with internationally renowned artists such as Nicky Spence, Tim Ridout, David Cohen, Awadagin Pratt, Julian Bliss, and projects with the Piatti and Solem Quartets. As a soloist she has performed with the BBC Singers live on Radio 3 and performs regularly with pianist Jeremy Young. She has recently embarked on a new venture with her love for the viola and has co-founded the London Piano Quartet in 2022.
Zahra's love for orchestral playing began at an early age, leading the 2nds of the National Youth Orchestra and leading the Halle Youth Orchestra. Now she appears as guest principal with leading UK ensembles including CBSO, Philharmonia, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, RPCO, BBCNOW, Riot Ensemble, Aurora, Chineke! the innovative 12 ensmeble, London Contemporary Orchestra and John Wilson's award-winning Sinfonia of London.
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Her tutors have included Gabor Takacs-Nagy, Maciej Rakowski and Quatuor Ebene. As a teacher herself, Zahra is on the faculty of chamber music at the Royal Northern College of Music and she has given masterclasses at conservatoires and universities across the UK and Ireland.
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Equally at home in the recording studio, Zahra spends much of her career working for film, TV and record producers at major London studios such as Abbey Road, AIR and RAK. She has recorded for a multitude of commerical artists primarily as part of Wired Strings.
Zahra's surname is of Arabic origin. She plays on a beautiful 1682 Nicolo Amati kindly made available to her from the Boucher Trust.
Emily joined the long established Piatti Quartet in 2023 who are currently the resident quartet in Kings Place, London. She owes her formative music education to her violin teacher David Hadwen, the Staffordshire Music Service and a dedicated mother... Following her time at the Royal Northern studying with Benedict Holland and Maciej Rakowski, Emily spent two years at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Geneve with the Benyounes Quartet studying with Gabor Takacs-Nagy, they then returned to London and held a Junior Fellowship at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.
Emily enjoys a varied freelance career regularly performing with ensembles including The Philharmonia, Royal Northern Sinfonia, London Contemporary Orchestra, 12 Ensemble and TV/Film recording with the Chamber Orchestra of London.
She has been involved in outreach and education throughout her career, she worked for the Council for Music in Hospitals for many years and is qualified in the musicianship training programme ‘Dalcroze Eurhythmics’. Emily is currently Head of Strings at Oakham School.