Isobel Warmelink is a Dutch-British violinist, violist and conductor. She has performed as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral musician across Europe, the UK, the US, Asia and South-America. Born in Rotterdam, Isobel began playing the violin at the age of four. From the age of nine she attended the School for Young Talent at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague where she studied violin, viola, piano and choir. She completed her bachelor’s degree in violin at the same institution, studying under the renowned Dutch violinist Vera Beths. She continued her studies at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg with Lukas Hagen, where she graduated in 2024.
In 2025 Isobel started conducting. In a very short period of time she has demonstrated a rapid artistic development and has had the opportunity to study with some of today’s most respected conducting pedagogues, such as Nicolás Pasquet, Antony Hermus and Colin Metters. Since December 2025 she takes private lessons with Johannes Klumpp in Germany.
In 2022, she was awarded first prize at the Netherlands Violin Competition and received the prestigious Kersjes Foundation Violin Scholarship. As a soloist, she has performed with prominent orchestras such as the Simon Bolívar Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Sinfonia Rotterdam, and the Residentie Orchestra in The Hague. In chamber music, playing both violin and viola, she frequently collaborates with pianist Nikola Meeuwsen, her former teacher and mentor Lukas Hagen, cellist Jeremias Fliedl, and the Amatis Piano Trio.
As an orchestral musician Isobel regularly plays with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra and as leader of the second violins of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. She has performed as principal second violins in the hr-Sinfonieorchester in Frankfurt and as second concertmaster in the Residentie Orchestra in The Hague. With the Concertgebouw Orchestra she has performed in concert halls all over the world, such as Carnegie Hall in New York, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Philharmonie de Paris and the Berliner Philharmonie. Throughout her career Isobel has had the opportunity to play with some of the great conductors of this time. Some highlights include several performances of Brahms, Mozart and Bruckner with Bernard Haitink, concerts and tours with Klaus Mäkelä, Herbert Blomstedt, Myung-Whun Chung, Antonio Pappano, Gianandrea Noseda and Jaap van Zweden, and a performance of Shostakovich Symphony no. 5 as concertmaster with Valery Gergiev.
Since 2023 Isobel plays a beautiful Vuillaume violin, generously loaned to her by the Dutch National Instrument Foundation (NMF).
