Michael Foyle

Praised by The Daily Telegraph for “playing of compelling conviction", Michael Foyle launched his international career by winning the Netherlands Violin Competition in 2016. His performance of Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra led to a recital debut at the Concertgebouw and two sold-out performances of Korngold’s Concerto with the orchestra the following season.

Since then he has made concerto debuts with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Polish Baltic Philharmonic, Wuppertal Sinfonieorchestra and Münchner Kammerphilharmonie, in collaboration with conductors including Jonathan Bloxham, Patrick Hahn, Ben Gernon, Pawel Kapula and Rafael Payare. He has appeared as a soloist across the world, including at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Cadogan Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields and Buckingham Palace in London, Salle Cortot in Paris, Stephansdom in Vienna, and the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory. 

Michael performs regularly at Wigmore Hall, where his debut recital was described by The Strad as 'full of sparkling detail, with tonal beauty and incisive rhythmic clarity, balancing wit and poetry.' A popular recitalist, he is invited to leading festivals worldwide, including Cheltenham, Edinburgh and St. Magnus (UK), Verao Classico (Portugal), Geneva Puplinge Classique (Switzerland), Cervantino (Mexico), Mravinsky St Petersburg (Russia) and the New York Chamber Music Festival (USA). He has broadcast live for BBC Radio 3 (UK), NPO Klassiek (Netherlands), Klassikaraadio (Estonia) and Polskie Radio 24 (Poland). 

In 2024, his recording of Ravel's works for violin and piano with François-Xavier Poizat for Aparté featured in 'Recording of the Month' in Gramophone Magazine (“one of the most lucid yet intensely focused versions on record”), while in 2023 his survey of the complete Beethoven Sonatas with Maksim Štšura for Challenge Classics received five stars in BBC Music Magazine (“more Classically contained than Kremer and Argerich, better musically balanced than Menuhin and Kempff and less interventionist than Faust and Melnikov ... the result is an engaging set of performances that casts fresh light on this much-recorded area of the repertoire”).

His discography also includes Lutosławski and Penderecki: Complete Violin and Piano Works and The Great War Centenary: Debussy, Janáček, Respighi, Hesketh, both of which received similar critical acclaim (“vividly and beautifully conceived and executed”- BBC Music Magazine; “richly detailed and impassioned performances” - The Daily Telegraph; “Foyle produces an absolutely gorgeous sound” – Fanfare; “a dream debut' – Luister; “an extraordinary release” - Stretto). In 2026, he will release a disc of Elgar, Walton and Adès on Delphian with pianist Iain Burnside.

Alongside his solo career, Michael is violinist of Trio Balthasar. His chamber-music collaborators have recently included pianists Kit Armstrong and Huw Watkins, cellists Natalie Clein, Nadège Rochat and Gabriel Schwabe, singers Kristina Mkhitaryan, Ailish Tynan and Andrey Zhilikhovsky, as well as the Brodsky Quartet and the London Conchord Ensemble. He has premiered works by over thirty living composers, most recently Philip Cashian's Violin Concerto (2024).

In 2016, Michael was made Professor at the Royal Academy of Music (the youngest violinist in the institution's 200-year history), and in 2021 he was appointed Professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln. In 2026, he gives masterclasses at L'Académie Internationale de Musique (Paris), Schlossakademie (Berlin), and the Järvi Academy (Pärnu). He was recently invited to join the Artistic Board of the City Music Foundation and the jury of the Royal Over-Seas League String Competition, both of which he is a former winner.

In 2022, Michael was invited to perform the 300th anniversary concert of the 'ex-Rode' Stradivarius displayed at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

He currently performs on a Gennaro Gagliano violin from 1750, on private loan.