{"id":78184,"date":"2023-06-05T10:19:02","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T09:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chethamsschoolofmusic.com\/?p=78184"},"modified":"2025-10-05T23:34:54","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T22:34:54","slug":"meet-the-recorder-soloist-set-to-make-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chethamsschoolofmusic.com\/blog\/meet-the-recorder-soloist-set-to-make-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the recorder soloist set to make history"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of our incredible sixth-form students, Anna, will become the first ever recorder soloist to perform with the Chetham\u2019s Symphony Orchestra at The Bridgewater Hall on 6\u202fJuly.\u00a0\u00a0A panel of professional musicians selected Anna to perform at the prestigious annual event where she will play Concerto Incantato,<\/a> written by\u00a0Richard Harvey in 2009. Harvey has composed music for TV and film including the Lion King 2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Anna is one of the UK’s up and coming ambassadors for an instrument that has fallen out of favour with musicians. We’ve seen an 80% drop in young people taking up the recorder at Chetham’s in the last ten years, despite its versatility and accessibility.<\/p>\n

Chris Orton, Recorder Tutor and European Recorder Teachers Association Chair, is leading the way to initiate projects that he hopes might save the recorder from extinction. He says that Anna offers a glimmer of hope for the instrument: \u201cThe recorder is increasingly overlooked by students, and yet it has a rich history and incredible versatility.\u00a0\u00a0 As well as making beautiful sounds, it\u2019s an accessible instrument in that it is low-cost, in comparison to other woodwind instruments, and it\u2019s light and easy to carry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe recorder\u00a0first\u00a0became popular during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Famous composers such as Claudio Monteverdi, Jean-Baptiste Lully and Johann Sebastian Bach wrote for the instrument. Not confined to the classical genre, bands like Led Zeppelin and The Beatles have used the recorder in their songs. More recently, talented musicians like Tali Rubinstein are championing it and the National Youth Recorder Orchestra is an excellent ensemble of young recorder players.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m immensely proud of Anna for being selected to perform with the Chetham\u2019s Symphony Orchestra. This is a first-time feat for a young musician, and I\u00a0hope she will inspire new generations of recorder players and help to save this instrument from extinction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anna began her musical journey as a chorister at Chetham\u2019s aged eight and continued it by taking up the recorder a couple of years later.\u00a0\u00a0She said: \u201cI can\u2019t wait to perform with the Chetham\u2019s Symphony Orchestra this summer and show people why I love the recorder. I\u2019m performing a piece that was written in 2009 and it\u2019s encouraging that although the number of professional recorder players is dropping, new works are still being commissioned by celebrated contemporary composers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom Redmond, Joint Principal at Chetham\u2019s School of Music, passionately believes that every child should be introduced to music at an early age: \u201cThe true wonder of music is that it can have a profound effect on quality of life. It should therefore be an important part of the school curriculum and the recorder is a fantastic place to start, but primary schools need more financial support so that all children can unlock the huge benefits of music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chetham\u2019s Symphony Orchestra at The Bridgewater Hall will include performances by several Chetham\u2019s School of Music students and, for many of them, it marks the end of their current musical education before heading off to conservatoires and universities around the world. Conducted by Grant Llewellyn (Chetham\u2019s Alumni 1971-1978), Chetham\u2019s Symphony Orchestra take to The Bridgewater Hall stage on 6 July. Tickets are on sale now: https:\/\/chethamsschoolofmusic.com\/whats-on\/chethams-at-the-bridgewater-hall\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of our incredible sixth-form students, Anna, will become the first ever recorder soloist to perform with the Chetham\u2019s Symphony Orchestra at The Bridgewater Hall on 6\u202fJuly.\u00a0\u00a0A panel of professional musicians selected Anna to perform at the prestigious annual event where she will play Concerto Incantato, written by\u00a0Richard Harvey in 2009. Harvey has composed music […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3152,"featured_media":78433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[185,97],"class_list":["post-78184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-baroque","tag-woodwind"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chethamsschoolofmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chethamsschoolofmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chethamsschoolofmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chethamsschoolofmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3152"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chethamsschoolofmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78184"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/chethamsschoolofmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96501,"href":"https:\/\/chethamsschoolofmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78184\/revisions\/96501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chethamsschoolofmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chethamsschoolofmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chethamsschoolofmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chethamsschoolofmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}