Angela Li Yen Koo is a classically trained violinist and music educator based in Scotland, holding a BMus (Hons) in Violin Performance from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (2024), where she studied under Támas Fejes and had masterclasses with David Watkin and Joseph Swensen. She also plays viola and piano, holding a Trinity Guildhall DipATCL with Distinction and has completed NYCOS Kodály Musicianship training (Levels 3–6). In 2023, she won the Horace Fellowes Medal for chamber music at the Edinburgh Competition Festival.
Alongside her teaching, Angela maintains an active freelance performing career, playing with professional orchestras and opera companies, including Tayside Opera and has performed with the RSNO and Scottish Opera as part of their Side-by-Side programmes. This ongoing performing experience feeds directly back into her teaching, keeping her practice rooted in live, professional music-making alongside her work in the classroom and ensemble hall.
Angela’s teaching draws on the Kodály, Rolland and Or] Schulwerk methodologies, blended with influences from Mimi Zweig, Ivan Galamian, Simon Fischer and Carl Flesch. She has served as an Upper Strings Musician with Big Noise Douglas (Sistema Scotland), delivering ensemble-based instrumental teaching to children facing social and economic disadvantage and previously held a Benedetti Foundation Creative Learning and Instrumental Ambassador role. She has also taught privately and with Music Collective Scotland and is currently teaching violin and viola in schools near Bruntsfield with the City of Edinburgh Council.
Her work is grounded in a belief in community music education as a vehicle for social transformation, alongside a long-standing interest in the intersection of classical training with creative and interdisciplinary practice.
Fun facts about Angela:
- Appeared as a violist in the film I Swear
- One of the frequently used headshots for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
- Loves baking as much as she loves music
