Described as ‘one of the most outstanding performers of her generation’ (The Strad), UK -born violinist Elizabeth Layton enjoys a varied international performing and teaching career.
 
As an eleven-year-old student at the Yehudi Menuhin School, Layton performed in chamber music with Yehudi and Hephzibah Menuhin at London’s Royal Festival Hall, celebrating Menuhin’s Golden Jubilee concert, broadcast by the BBC. Continuing her studies as scholarship student of Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School, New York, she then won the Young Concert Artists Trust competition, leading to her UK debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Solo performances followed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Northern Sinfonia, Edinburgh Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, City of Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and many others, with conductors Osmo Vanska, Martyn Brabbins, Ilan Volkov and Sir Charles Groves. Festival appearances include Bath, Edinburgh, Harrogate, Cheltenham, Valencia, Gstaad, Aspen, Banff, with recitals at Wigmore Hall and South Bank Centre.
 
Layton has toured chamber music worldwide as a member of the Nash Ensemble, and given performances at Adelaide Festival, Melbourne Festival, George Town Festival Penang, Coriole Festival, ASO ‘She Speaks’, Music by the Springs, Bendigo Festival, UNSW Chamber Series, Selby& Friends, Akaroa Festival and the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. Other recent concerts include performances in New Zealand, Thailand, China and India.
Her recordings include a critically acclaimed CD of Jonathan Harveyʼs ʻScena for violin’, with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Ilan Volkov, complete Beethoven piano trios (nominated for a Gramophone Award) and violin and piano works by Schubert (Daily Telegraph ‘CD Choice’). A commitment to contemporary music has seen the BBC broadcasting many of her solo performances, in works of Dutilleux, Cresswell, Knussen, van der Aa and Scelsi. Other chamber music CD recordings include music by Ravel, Schubert, Brahms, Fauré, Schoenberg, Stanford, Shostakovich and Arvo Pärt for DG, Hyperion, BIS and Chandos. Most recent releases include a critically acclaimed double CD set of Boccherini’s chamber music with flautist Sally Walker (Avie), receiving a 5 star review in BBC Music Magazine.
 
Alongside colleagues at the Elder Conservatorium, she has embarked on a busy recording schedule for Naxos, with the release of a 3 CD set of complete and previously unrecorded string chamber music by the 18th Century English composer, William Shield. International reviews have been unanimous in their praise of the series, commenting ‘The playing from Elizabeth Layton is exemplary in its understated tonal beauty and graceful phrasing’ (The Strad, April 2026), ‘musical skill and subtle interpretations make both the composer and the performers a pleasurable discovery’. Pizzicato.lu Other recordings awaiting release include music by Pleyel and Ferdinand Ries, and a series of fortepiano trios by Storace for Chandos Records in collaboration with the University of Auckland.
 
Layton was a former concertmaster of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Associate Leader of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, broadcasting regularly for the BBC as soloist and director. A favourite genre is working with chamber orchestras, directing from the violin. She appears annually as guest director with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in this role, having previously worked with the Manchester Camerata, Scottish Ensemble, Ambache Ensemble and Sinfonia 21, with soloists Michael Collins, Martin Roscoe, Alison Balsom and Tasmin Little. She is also much in demand working with student ensembles, giving concerts with the Australian Youth Orchestra players and performing regularly with players at the Elder Conservatorium.
 
A passionate educator, Layton was 2024 winner of the University of Adelaide Excellence in Teaching (Individual) Award and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK). Her students have won numerous awards and scholarships, and she most recently used a Learning & Teaching grant to attend a conference at Indiana University USA, resulting in her curation of a seven-part pedagogy lecture series at Adelaide University. She established the Elder Conservatorium / Adelaide Symphony Orchestra Fellowship, enabling students to liaise and learn directly from professional players, helping establish students into professional careers.. Alongside colleague Dr Edith Salzmann, she won grants to create the String Quartet weekend program, enabling students from across Australia and New Zealand to visit the Elder Conservatorium for intensive chamber music coaching alongside current students. Eizabeth is a regular guest educator for AYO, AdYO, Adelaide chamber music courses and regularly visits schools in South Australia and Victoria. She also sits on the College Student Engagement Committee and is a current participant in the Research While Teaching Program. Layton celebrated a former colleague in her teaching role at the Elder Conservatorium, violinist Beryl Kimber OBE, contributing a biographical chapter to the book ‘Double Stopping – How Migration Shaped the Careers of Australia’s Celebrity Violinists’, published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2026.
 
Elizabeth Layton is currently Head of Classical Performance at the Elder Conservatorium, receiving a doctorate from the University of Adelaide in 2019.
 
 
My research investigates music performance through string playing, and includes exploration of the collaboration, repertoire and innovative teaching required to enable any performer to reach their full potential. My most recent research centres around violinist George Enescu, examining his seminal 1921 Bucharest Recital Series, innovative for the amount of repertoire and new work included. I also explore lesser known violin sonata repertoire from the early decades of the twentieth century, performing, recording and re-appraising neglected scores. I welcome inquiries from string students at undergraduate and postgraduate level to the Elder Conservatorium.