Elise Pettersen Watten is a 26-year-old Norwegian violist, violinist and Hardanger-fiddle player. She is also a passionate educator.

Elise started her musical journey with the folk fiddle in the Norwegian tradition but later trained as a classical musician. Having graduated with a Master of Performance at the Royal College of Music (RCM) in July 2022, Elise regularly performs across a wide range of genres, with orchestras and chamber groups across London. She´s also recorded at some of the most prestigious venues, including Angel and Abbey Road Studios. In 2020, she was a participant in the BBC Symphony Orchestra´s Pathways programme.

In addition to Elise’s loves of performing, she also loves to educate. She teaches strings and music to whole classes, groups and individuals, at schools across South East and North West London. She also has experience in delivering music therapy, and supporting students with severe special educational needs and disabilities. She is particularly passionate about supporting less privileged students to excel in music. While at RCM, she undertook postgraduate training in performance psychology at the elite Centre for Performance Science, specialising in how to help state school students perform in high-pressure contexts.