Purcell’s Woodwind Department is hosting some incredible masterclasses with some of the world’s most renowned musicians in the upcoming weeks! Highlights from the masterclasses including performances from Purcell’s first-study woodwind students will be uploaded to Purcell Online which can be found here.
The full schedule of the Woodwind Masterclass Festival is as follows:
Nicholas Daniel is one of Britain's best known musicians. He has premiered hundreds of new works for the Oboe and made many critically acclaimed recordings. He is also a successful conductor, including being Music Director of Triorca, young musicians from Germany, the UK and Serbia. He was given the Queen’s medal for Music in 2011 and appointed OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2020. Nicholas won the 1980 BBC Young Musician competition, after which he quickly established his career, travelling all over the world, broadcasting widely, making his debut at the Proms, and he has made many critically acclaimed recordings of both new and familiar works. As a soloist he has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras, performing a huge range of repertoire and premiering works written especially for him by many of the world’s greatest composers. He is a founder member of the Britten Sinfonia, the Haffner Wind Ensemble, Orsino, and the Britten Oboe Quartet. He lives in Cambridgeshire with his husband and his cats Cristāl, a British Blue, and Diamond, a Maine Coon. He is Professor at the Trossingen Musikhochschule in Germany, a member of Momentum (music not politics!), and Max-Musician and Artist Exchange.
Katherine Baker studied with William Bennet, Sebastian Bell and Kate Hill at the Royal Academy of Music. In 2000 she was given the job of Principal Flute with the BBC National Orchestra Wales and four years later she moved to the same role with the Hallé Orchestra. In her 14 years in Manchester, Katherine cemented her position as one of the leading flautists in the country.
Katherine is a keen chamber musician and concerto soloist, most recently performing with harpist Lucy Wakeford in Mozart’s Flute and Harp concerto with the Northern Chamber Orchestra.
In 2018, Katherine started her new role as Principal Flute with the Orchestra of The Royal Opera House, her dream job!
During the first lockdown of 2020 Katherine was asked to perform Dance of the Blessed Spirits alongside Vadim Muntagirov, one of the Principal Dancers of the Royal Ballet, dancing a solo. This led to another project later on in the year collaborating with other dancers on stage together performing Syrinx and other small chamber works all socially distanced.
Katherine enjoys teaching and coaching as a professor at the Royal Academy of Music.
Pascal Moragues has been first principal clarinet in the Orchestre de Paris since 1981, Professor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris since 1995, guest Professor at the College of Music in Osaka (Japan) since 2002 and Professor at the High School of Music in Lausanne.
He is leading a busy career both as a soloist and a sought after chamber musician.
Conductors he has performed with as a soloist include Daniel Barenboïm, Pierre Boulez, Semyon Bychkov, Carlo-Maria Giulini, Zubin Metha,
He is a member of the Quintette Moragues, the Viktoria Mullova Ensemble, the Ensemble of Katia and Marielle Labèque and he is regularly invited as a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
In chamber music, he has also played with many international soloists and quartets including Sviatoslav Richter, Christian Zacharias, Daniel Barenboïm, Pascal Rogé, Schlomo Mintz, Joshua Bell, Yuri Bashmet, Borodine, Carmina, Amati, Prazak, Leipzig, Lindsay, Endellion, Jerusalem, Isaye and Talich String Quartets.
Pascal is regularly invited to Japan, the United States, Australia, the Middle East and all over Europe for concert tours and master classes.
He has made many prize winning recordings - with Sviatoslav Richter, Viktoria Mullova, and the Quintette Moragues and is an official endorser for Buffet Crampon.
Described by noted American composer Libby Larsen as “fearless on stage,” saxophonist Stephen Page has garnered international prominence as one of the leading saxophonists of today’s younger generation. Page has appeared across four continents, including United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, Canada, Australia, and the United States.
Stephen has earned prizes in no fewer than ten International and national competitions, including the MTNA Solo and Chamber Competition, the NASA Solo and Quartet Competitions, the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, the YYPA, and the AUREC Saxophone Competition.
Dr. Page has released fourteen recordings as a soloist and chamber musician which can be heard on the Enharmonic, Teal Creek, Crystal Music, and AUR Labels. Stephen’s premier recording of John Mackey’s Soprano Saxophone Concerto and John Adams’ Saxophone Concerto will be released in 2019, on the NAXOS label.
Stephen Page is Associate Professor at The University of Texas Butler School of Music.
Lucie Horsch (1999) is the most recent winner of the Dutch Music Prize, the highest state award for musicians in the Netherlands. She grew up in a musical family and began playing the recorder at the age of five. In 2010 she started her studies with Walter van Hauwe at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, where she also studied piano with Jan Wijn. In 2013 Lucie Horsch was chosen to represent the Netherlands at the final of Eurovision Young Musician in Cologne. Three years later she received the prestigious Concertgebouw Young Talent Award. Lucie Horsch has an exclusive recording contract with Decca Classics. In 2016 her debut CD with works by Vivaldi was released, for which she received the Edison Klassiek Award. In 2019 she recorded her second album in collaboration with the Academy of Ancient Music. This album was awarded an Opus Klassik Award. Lucie Horsch has worked with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and the Hongkong Philharmonic Orchestra among many others. In addition, she recently made her debut with the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Ton Koopman. Lucie Horsch has appeared at the Holland Festival, the Festival Oude Muziek, the Budapest Spring Festival and the Festspiele Mecklenburg Vorpommern. In 2019, she played the premiere of the piece 'Zeng' for recorder, percussion and string ensemble by Finnish composer Lotta Wennäkoski.
Gordon started the bassoon at Redbridge Music School with David Nissen and Susan Eversden. Winning a scholarship to study with Anna Meadows at the Junior Department of the Royal College of Music, it was there he discovered the contrabassoon. He went on to study full time at the Senior Conservatoire with Geoffrey Gambold (bassoon) and John Burness (contrabassoon), both principals with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at that time.
His professional career started in his last year at RCM with the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast moving then to become a member of The Royal Opera House Covent Garden and subsequently joining the Philharmonia Orchestra, as Principal Contrabassoon, for 15 years. He has played with nearly all the major UK orchestras, and performed on many film and television sessions.
Gordon's international playing experience includes: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (based in Wellington).
A qualified Pilates (matwork) instructor and Personal Fitness Trainer, Gordon credits this combination with having helped him remain free from suffering any playing related injuries.
He has been using these disciplines with students at Codarts (Conservatoire), Rotterdam, for the past 5 years, and with fellow professional musicians, helping them improve their body-awareness and fitness, which, in turn, helps them reduce their chances of suffering a playing-related injury.
