I grew up in Newcastle and began playing the recorder at primary school along with everyone else. However unlike everyone else I never grew out of it. I studied for a music degree at King’s College London in 2001, whilst studying recorder at the Royal Academy of Music and later at the Royal College of Music. Whilst in London I put on and performed in various concerts, including performing for a Yoko Ono art installation in St Paul’s Cathedral.

I moved to Gateshead in 2008 and am now in the process of setting up a business called Flautino, the focus of which is to change the commonly held perception of the recorder being an instrument purely for primary school children, and to show what beautiful music it is capable of producing.