After 45 years away , I have gone back to playing baroque and classical music on the concert flute. I started playing the flute at school when I was nine, the oboe in high school. the piano in my forties. (I really wanted to play the trumpet, but there was already a flute in our house, instruments were expensive and in those days, little girls didn’t play the trumpet!)
Music has always been a huge part of my life - I played in the school band, the orchestra, the marching band. I became involved in traditional music as a teenager, when I spent every Saturday evening folk dancing in the community centre, and many summer evenings listening to folk bands under the stars.
University, work and family made the gap in my playing. I played the piano for a decade, and while that was musically fulfilling, it was also very lonely. By that time I was ready to get involved in traditional music. I was living in Scotland by then, which is one of the best places in the world for sessions! After a while, with what my friends charitably refer to as my "low boredom threshold", I found myself wanting to diversify into a second traditional instrument. After dabbling with the smallpipes (too energetic) and the piano accordion (too heavy), I stumbled across the english concertina, a grand little instrument capable of playing melody, accompaniment and even percussion.
I have thorough enjoyed playing in Stevenson College, Edinburgh's ensembles while studying DFM (Trad) and HNC (Classical Flute, part-time). For several years, I played in Shindiggery, a band that grew from theat the Digger’s session, as well as the Beach Band, Transverse Trio, and Wheeple and the Lintie . I performed in the Scots Music Group’s 2011 final Inspire Project concert (which was recorded), and enjoyed the experience of Andrew Gormley's Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square in 2009.
I am currently joying playing in a woodwind quintet. I've thoroughly enjoyed attending the Scottish International Flute School during the past couple of summers. I look forward to continuing studying classical flute on my Miyazawa flute.
Music has always been a huge part of my life - I played in the school band, the orchestra, the marching band. I became involved in traditional music as a teenager, when I spent every Saturday evening folk dancing in the community centre, and many summer evenings listening to folk bands under the stars.
University, work and family made the gap in my playing. I played the piano for a decade, and while that was musically fulfilling, it was also very lonely. By that time I was ready to get involved in traditional music. I was living in Scotland by then, which is one of the best places in the world for sessions! After a while, with what my friends charitably refer to as my "low boredom threshold", I found myself wanting to diversify into a second traditional instrument. After dabbling with the smallpipes (too energetic) and the piano accordion (too heavy), I stumbled across the english concertina, a grand little instrument capable of playing melody, accompaniment and even percussion.
I have thorough enjoyed playing in Stevenson College, Edinburgh's ensembles while studying DFM (Trad) and HNC (Classical Flute, part-time). For several years, I played in Shindiggery, a band that grew from theat the Digger’s session, as well as the Beach Band, Transverse Trio, and Wheeple and the Lintie . I performed in the Scots Music Group’s 2011 final Inspire Project concert (which was recorded), and enjoyed the experience of Andrew Gormley's Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square in 2009.
I am currently joying playing in a woodwind quintet. I've thoroughly enjoyed attending the Scottish International Flute School during the past couple of summers. I look forward to continuing studying classical flute on my Miyazawa flute.