Rebecca Herman studied with Steven Doane at the Eastman School of Music (Rochester, New York) and with Josephine Knight at the Royal Academy of Music (London), supported by major awards from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and Help Musicians UK. Rebecca subsequently held the Leverhulme Chamber Music Fellowship and the Meaker Solo Fellowship at the Academy, which included the 12-month loan of the ‘Segelman’ Stradivarius cello.

As a Park Lane Group Young Artist, Concordia Foundation Young Artist and founding member of the Castalian Quartet, Rebecca performed at major UK venues, including the Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, the Purcell Room, and the Cheltenham and Edinburgh Festivals. As a freelance orchestral cellist, Rebecca has worked all over the world with ensembles including the Philharmonia, the BBC Symphony and Concert Orchestras, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Britten Sinfonia, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Rambert Dance and English National Opera.

Alongside her active performing career, Rebecca is currently pursuing doctoral studies in performance psychology at the Royal College of Music, investigating the impact of mindfulness training on performance anxiety. Her PhD is supported by the London Arts and Humanities Partnership. Rebecca has been invited to present her research at the International Mindfulness Conference in Aarhus (Denmark) and the International Symposium for Performance Science in Warsaw, (Poland) and she recently published an article reconceptualising performance anxiety in the Frontiers in Psychology journal.

Rebecca is a passionate advocate of challenging taboos and misconceptions around performance anxiety, and of supporting young performers to manage the demands of elite performance. She has delivered performance psychology workshops for young musicians in the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Junior Artists’ and Foyle Future Firsts’ schemes, at the Royal Academy of Music Junior Department, the Royal College of Music, Wells Cathedral School and the Street Orchestra of London.

Rebecca has a young son and a golden doodle, and enjoys experimental cooking, Klezmer music, swimming in the sea and challenging misogynistic assumptions around parenting. Rebecca joined the VMS team in January 2024.