Drawn to chamber music and collaboration from an early age, Brighton-born cellist Riya Hamie performs internationally as a chamber and orchestral musician. She studies with John Myerscough on a full scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music, as a recipient of the Sir Elton John Award.
She has been invited to chamber music residencies at Snape Maltings, Ferrandou Musique, and Ad Manuarem 1762, and performs regularly at major festivals including the BBC Proms, Cheltenham Festival, Peasmarsh Festival, and Brighton Festival. Past and future collaborators include Adrian Brendel, Brett Dean, Alex Redington, Richard Lester, Colin Currie, and Sally Beamish.
Alongside her chamber work, she appears regularly as a concerto soloist with UK orchestras, making her debut with Dvořák’s Cello Concerto to standing ovation as the winner of the Peter Morrison Concerto Competition. Following this, she was awarded a recital at the Royal Albert Hall’s Elgar Room, performing to a sold out audience. She won First Prize and the Coro Nuovo Bursary at the Sussex Young Musician of the Year Competition 2024, as well as being a prizewinner of the Florence Hooton Cello Competition 2025.
In 2024, Riya was selected for the Royal Academy of Music’s Advanced Specialist String Ensemble Training Scheme, through which she was mentored by Alex Redington, and was awarded the Wolfe Wolfinson Prize. She was also one of three Academy cellists chosen to participate in a masterclass with Steven Isserlis for the BBC series Arts in Motion.
Riya has extensive orchestral experience, having been selected as one of eight London Philharmonic Orchestra junior artists and invited to the Royal Opera House’s Overture orchestral mentoring scheme for 2023/24, where she was mentored by principal cellist Hetty Snell and worked under Sir Antonio Pappano and Koen Kessels. She has performed orchestrally in prestigious venues all across the UK, most notably the Royal Albert Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Festival Hall, and the Barbican.
She is a founding member of the Astatine Piano Trio, BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist for 2025–27. The trio has been internationally recognised in many competitions and performs widely across the globe. From 2022-25 they were mentored by Alfred Brendel, at his personal invitation.
Riya plays on a George Panormo cello – on loan from the Benslow Music Instrument Loan Scheme since January 2020 – which was kindly donated by the late Walter Cheney. She is deeply grateful for the support of the Albert Cooper Trust, the Westdene Fund, and The Pebble Trust.