As well as orchestral playing, I’ve been a member of the North Sea radio Orchestra for 15 years. The North Sea Radio Orchestra is an English contemporary music ensemble and cross-disciplinary chamber orchestra. In recent years the band has been collaborating with John Greaves on a new arrangement of Robert Wyatt’s album Rock Bottom.
I use my bassoon in a variety of ways in my workshops: performing, holding the space, drones, mirroring, extending and holding cross-arts activities.
The NSRO was set up mainly as a vehicle for the compositions of its musical director, Craig Fortnam, but has also performed works by William D. Drake and James Larcombe. The ensemble is notable for its post-modern fusion of Romantic music and later twentieth century forms, and for its bridging of the worlds of contemporary classical music, British folk music, London art rock and poetry (setting music to poems by W.B. Yeats, Thomas Hardy, Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Daniel Dundas Maitland).
Ivor the Engine rock version
Heavy weather
I trained at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. After completing my BA in Music, I went on to be the principal bassoonist of the Cyprus State Chamber Orchestra. On returning to the UK I completed the Guildhall School of Music leadership course and then an MA in orchestral playing.
Tuning In 