Nerea Arriola Mendieta was born in 2002 in Mendaro, in the Basque Country in northern Spain, and began learning the violin with her parents at the age of 5.

She has won prizes at national and international competitions, including: 1st prize and a special prize at the 4th ‘Triomphe de l’Art’ International Music Competition (Belgium, 2018); and 1st prize in categories B and C at the ‘Ciudad de Vigo’ Competition (Spain, 2016 and 2018). One of the prize-winners at the 2023 Peregrinos Musicales Festival.

She has been invited to take part in the Academy of the Sochi International Winter Arts Festival under the direction of Yuri Bashmet and at the Leopold Auer Festival in Saint Petersburg, as well as at the Pau Casals Festival in 2023 and 2024. She has also given solo concerts with the 430 Orchestra of Vigo and with the Real Filharmonía de Galicia in Santiago de Compostela.

Nerea was among the youngest musicians selected from across Spain to take part in the 2016–2020 Talent Development Project organised by the Madrid Symphony Orchestra.

After completing her bachelor’s degree, she was accepted into the Menuhin International Music Academy, where she studied with Renaud Capuçon, Gábor Tákacs, Oleg Kaskiv and Guillaume Chilemme.

In April 2024, she auditioned for a place on Renaud Capuçon and François Sochard’s course at the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne, where she was accepted onto the Master’s in Concert Performance programme. She is currently the recipient of the Nicanor Zabaleta scholarship awarded for this purpose by the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa.

She has secured a position as a substitute player with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra and, since November, has been performing regularly with the ensemble as part of various programmes.