Recorder
Our lively and supportive recorder department provides tuition in all aspects of style, technique and repertoire.
The emphasis within the department is on making the most of each student's individual strengths and talents, with a view to opening up pathways into the varied and innovative professional world of the recorder ‘performer-practitioner’. Weekly lessons are given by Annabel Knight (head of department) and Chris Orton, enhanced by regular masterclasses and visits from leading professionals to offer the widest possible range of approaches to performance and pedagogy. Since 2020, masterclass and lecturing visitors have included Michael Form, Andreas Böhlen, Sarah Jeffery, Susanna Borsch, Adrian Brown, Francesca Clements, Emily Baines, Philip Thorby, Emily Bannister and James Risdon.
Our staff
Our expert teaching staff are renowned as leading performers and teachers in the UK and provide exceptional tuition.
Our staffOur tutors
We also have a variety of tutors who provide specialist teaching and advice within the Woodwind department.
Our tutorsPerformances
Come along to an RBC performance to see our current students in action, alongside some of the biggest names in classical and contemporary music.
Upcoming performancesAccess high quality instruments
Whilst players are expected to invest in good quality solo instruments of their own with the help and guidance of their teachers, students also have the use of a comprehensive department collection of renaissance, baroque and modern recorders. These include a 12-piece consort of Adrian Brown's renaissance recorders pitched at A 466, based on original research into consort sizes of the sixteenth century.
The department also owns a square Paetzold contra-bass recorder, which is frequently used to explore contemporary repertoire with electronics, as well as a department mixing desk and range of music tec equipment for the use of recorder players wishing to explore the most progressive repertoire.
A harpsichord is routinely available for accompaniment in lessons and the department is well-integrated into Early Music activities, with opportunities for baroque chamber music coaching and orchestral playing, as well as the regular classes offered by the Early Music elective. Recorder players are actively encouraged to try out baroque orchestral instruments such as baroque flute, oboe or violin.
Take part in exciting events
The Birmingham Conservatoire Recorder Department is proud to have initiated and hosted a number of recorder and early music events, including the Recorder in Education Conference in 2020, and the Birmingham Recorder and Early Music Festival in 2023. These nationally-recognised events, led by our head of recorder Annabel Knight, allow our students to make connections in the professional world, contribute directly to concerts, workshops and outreach events, and to gain first hand experience of the ‘recorder practitioner' in today’s world.
The recorder department is also committed to encouraging its students to explore opportunities outside the Conservatoire, with the aim of developing professional contacts across the globe and becoming aware of current developments within the field. Recorder department members have attended and assisted with the Open Recorder Days festival at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, and our third year undergraduates have frequently been involved in exchanges, allowing a period of study at a partner institute abroad. In 2024 the Recorder department made a trip to the Mollenhauer Recorder Factory and Kunath Instrument workshop in Fulda, Germany.
Performing opportunities
All periods of recorder music from the medieval and renaissance period up to the present day are afforded equal importance, with opportunities to develop both solo and ensemble playing. Regular department concerts and performance classes complement routine consort work, technique, history and pedagogy sessions. In addition, the recorder players are invited to perform in the wider context of the Woodwind department performance classes, encouraging students to engage with styles outside of our standard repertoire. In recent years our recorder and historical performance students have also been engaged to play for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-on-Avon, and collaborated with Worcestershire Early Music.
Opportunities to take part in electives in performance, improvisation and composition with live electronics are open to all students. Our recorder tutors are keen to support students interested in working in this area and we have strong links with the composition department.
Joint First Study Option for BMus Recorder Players
RBC are delighted to announce a new initiative for talented and dedicated Recorder players who also play another instrument to Conservatoire level and who want to pursue in-depth undergraduate performance studies on both instruments. The option recognises the changing and creative role that the Recorder plays in modern professional music making and how an in-depth knowledge of the instrument (and historical playing practices) can complement many other areas of musicianship and instrumental performance.
Students who are accepted onto this scheme will need to fulfil all the usual progressive technical criteria for each first study instrument, as well as specially devised recital requirements, in order to progress through the course. The joint study status will be reviewed at regular intervals.
Interested candidates should contact Jenni Phillips, Head of Woodwind.
Community ties
The department has over a number of years developed links in the wider community, with our students teaching for Birmingham and Coventry Music Services, and conducting the Birmingham branch of the Society of Recorder Players. The new RBC Primary School of Music in Small Heath is linked directly with our postgraduate recorder students who are sharing their skills and developing their experiences of music education.