Molly Cockburn is 18 years old and comes from Sheffield.  She is currently a 6th-former at Chetham's School of Music where she studies violin with Jan Repko.

Prior to Chetham's, she was a student at the Junior Royal Northern College of Music, studying with Nina Martin.  During her time at the Junior RNCM, Molly won the 2007 Concerto Competition and was awarded several prizes, including the Rohi Gazder Violin Prize in two consecutive years, and the International Prize for chamber music. 

Molly was also winner of last year's Chetham's Concerto Competition and will be performing the Glazunov Concerto with the Chetham's Symphony Orchestra in 2010.  Previous concerto appearances have included the Wieniawski D minor with the Junior RNCM Chamber Orchestra and the Arnold and Bach Double Concertos with the Sheffield Chamber Orchestra.

Molly reached the string semi-finals of the BBC Young Musician of the Year 2008 and won the Sheffield Young Performers' Platform in the same year.

She has given numerous solo recitals at venues throughout the UK and has taken part in masterclasses with Peter Cropper, Kazuki Sawa, Leland Chen, Gordon Back, Robert Rozek and Stephan Barratt-Due.

In addition to her solo work, Molly is a very keen chamber musician. In 2002, her string quartet won the Junior Chamber Music section of the National Festival for Music for Youth and she has represented either the Junior RNCM or Chetham's in each of the RNCM's annual Chamber Music Festivals since 2005. In 2008, her piano trio was chosen to represent the Junior RNCM in an exchange visit to the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki and she recently participated in a performance of Mozart's first Flute Quartet for Prince Edward at Buckingham Palace.