Tutors 2024

Simon Borutzki

Simon Borutzki is a professional recorder player, conductor, teacher and classically trained singer. He studied recorder with Prof. Michael Schneider at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts (HfMDK) and with Prof. Christoph Huntgeburth at the University of the Arts (UdK) in Berlin. He completed his vocal training at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin. As artistic director of the Berlin Recorder Orchestra (BBO–Berliner Blockflöten Orchester) since 2011, he has set new standards in orchestration, instrumentation and performance for large recorder ensembles.

Under his leadership BBO has taken home awards from the German Orchestra Competition sponsored by the German Music Council, as well as from Open Recorder Days Amsterdam. In 2018 Simon produced the orchestra’s first CD, Alla Turca under the Klanglogo label. He has held the podium since 2012 and prepared the musical arrangements for more than fifty concerts. He has collaborated with and performed the work of composers such as Sören Sieg and the late Markus Zahnhausen.

Simon is regularly called upon as a guest conductor by large recorder ensembles in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. He is affiliated with the European Recorder Teachers Association and leads workshops in Fulda (home of the world’s largest recorders) and Berlin. He has served as a member of the jury at the national level for the German musical competition for young people, Jugend musiziert. As a performer, his repertoire ranges from the baroque to romantic and modern, performed in solo programs, chamber ensemble, or with orchestra. Simon won the Graun Festival competition in 2005 and is a recipient of a scholarship from the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation Live Music Now, Berlin. His professional recording work includes a complete recording of the Telemann Fantasias and, most recently, the entire Fluyten Lust-hof by Jacob van Eyck.

As a teacher Simon has enjoyed remarkable success with his students, who have won several prizes in competitions and gone on to start their own careers. Simon Borutzki lives in Berlin, Germany. He performs exclusively on recorders handcrafted by Sebastian Meyer (Switzerland).

Anna Stegmann

Anna Stegmann is a passionate performer and educator of early and contemporary recorder music. She is recorder professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she teaches an enthusiastic, selected group of next generation recorder-professionals. She is also a regular guest teacher at Wells Cathedral School. Anna has led workshops and masterclasses for IAM (Internationaler Arbeitskreis für Musik e.V.), Recorder Courses Lyme, Airforce UK, Recorder Summer School, Easter Early Music School, Orpheus Recorder Boutique and many more.

Anna has performed in concert halls from Europe to Australia and recorded several CDs with her own groups Ensemble Odyssee and The Royal Wind Music, as well as performing as guest musician with La Risonanza (Fabio Bonizzoni), The New Dutch Academy, Musica Sequenza, L’Arpeggiata (Christina Pluhar), the Rotterdam Philarmonisch Orkest, and others. She fosters a close artistic relationship with violinist Jorge Jiménez, with whom she recorded three albums with music ranging from the Middle Ages to the present day. Their first project LUNARIS has been nominated for no less than four OPUS KLASSIK in 2021.

In 2020 Anna established her own digital recital series, and so far, has completed two seasons of recorder solo and chamber music. These professionally filmed music videos aim to make performances accessible to audiences that are unable to attend live concerts and to bring the listener closer to the performer than is possible in a conventional live-stream. All episodes can be watched on Anna’s website and YouTube channel.

Kamala Bain

Kamala Bain (NZ) is a recorder performance graduate of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, where she studied with Walter van Hauwe and Paul Leenhouts. Now based in Wellington, her work as a performer takes her back to Europe and Australia, with highlights including performances with Pinchgut Opera in Sydney, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, and the Akademie für Alte Musik Bruneck in Italy. New Zealand performance highlights include Stroma’s Mirror of Time series, a Chamber Music NZ tour with Barocca, and performances with NZ Barok, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and the recently formed Night Watch ensemble. Kamala teaches privately, makes regular appearances as a tutor at workshops in Australia and NZ, has taught in Ireland and Canada, and is an artist teacher at the NZ School of Music.

Alana Blackburn

Australian recorder player Dr Alana Blackburn is highly regarded throughout Australia and Europe as a soloist and ensemble musician.  With a passion for both early and contemporary music, recorder player Alana Blackburn performs music spanning over 500 years; often finding ways to incorporate medieval, renaissance and baroque repertoire and modern composition either through juxtaposition and/or assimilation within a work or program. Using multiple instruments to discover an enhanced sound-world, Alana pushes the confines of traditional recorder playing, bringing together early historical performance practice and contemporary performance delivery through solo performances, collaborating with other artists, commissioning new works, interdisciplinary performance and electro-acoustic presentations.    

Alexandra Bailliet-Joly

Alexandra is an Australian Recorder player, chamber musician, music educator, conductor and co-director of the Australasian Recorder Festival.  

​Alexandra teaches recorder to students of all ages and is currently teaching private lessons in Sydney. Alexandra has been a tutor, conductor and performer for the Sydney Recorder Society, Canberra Recorder & Early Music Society, Victorian Recorder Guild, Recorder and Early Music Society of Western Australia and the annual Orpheus Music Recorder Courses (Armidale, NSW). Alexandra is one of the four founding members and organisers of The Melbourne Recorder Academy, organising workshops for recorder students around Victoria. She currently tutors recorder ensembles at the Sydney Conservatorium High School.  

​As a performer, Alexandra is part of The Recorder Co-op a recorder quartet specializing in recorder music both contemporary and early. In the past she has performed with the Organs of Ballarat Goldfields festival (VIC), Bach Akademie Australia (SYD), Salut! Baroque (SYD), The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (SA), Trillo (VIC) and the Bach Cantata program at St Johns Southgate (VIC). Alexandra has been broadcast on ABC Classic FM and ABC Regional Radio. 

​She writes articles on the recorderinterviews other recorder professionals and creates Gecko Newsletters on behalf of Orpheus Music. In the last few years she has been creating Composition Competitions through Orpheus Music and co-directing Orpheus Music courses and the Australasian Recorder Festival.

Robert Manley

Dr Robert Manley is a multi-instrumentalist, music teacher and academic. Rob has performed as recorder soloist with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and festival appearances include the New England Bach Festival (2023), Huon Valley Chamber Music Festival (2022), BrisAsia Festival (2021) and Hobart Baroque Festival (2013). Rob currently works at the New England Conservatorium of Music as a piano teacher and resident accompanist. Robert is also a professional cellist who has worked with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, and Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. Rob’s work as a researcher and composer focusses on engaging audiences with classical music in regional Australia.

Robyn Mellor

Robyn Mellor is a Canberra based recorder player, community based music director and teacher, and choir leader. She studied recorder performance and music education in Perth, WA and undertook intensive recorder study for 3 years in the Netherlands. Robyn has performed with many of Australia’s leading recorder players and early music specialists over the past 30 years in Australia and New Zealand. Robyn presents diverse concerts of early and modern music in Canberra as director of women’s vocal ensemble Polifemy and the leader of recorder groups Walking the Dog and Block Sounds. She is much in demand as a private and community music teacher, and for recorder workshops throughout Australia. Robyn has been a regular tutor at Orpheus festivals and workshops over many years.    

Robyn Mellor, our tutor for the day, has a remarkable presence. The moment she stands behind her ‘lectern’ of musical scores we are instantly quiet. All chattering ceases. We were not disappointed. (Clodagh Jones, Hobart Society of Recorder Players)   

Daniel Murphy

Daniel Murphy is a Sydney-based primary school teacher and musician. He works with the NSW arts unit delivering high quality recorder programs as part of the Festival of Instrumental Music. Daniel tutors and conducts the NSW Public Schools Recorder Consort that performs regularly at the Sydney Opera House and has taken the group on international tours. During lockdown Daniel studied and became an accredited Suzuki recorder teacher, expanding his methodology and pedagogy to enhance his teaching. In his spare time Daniel enjoys arranging music for recorder ensembles and playing music in chambers ensembles, orchestras and stage bands.

Kimberley Scriven

Kimberley Scriven is a performer and teacher who aims to inspire others to pursue the recorder. Based in Wagga Wagga NSW, Kimberley performs in Trio Espressivo, and has soloed with ensembles such as the Sydney Conservatorium Early Music Ensemble, the Camerata Academica of the Antipodes Ensemble and the Limestone Consort. Kimberley is a recorder teacher at the Riverina Conservatorium of Music and has developed a recorder program which has expanded to several regional NSW primary schools. She also teaches High School classroom music and encourages students of all ages to pursue excellence in their musical studies.

Kimberley completed her Music Performance degree on the recorder at Sydney Conservatorium of Music (Honours) in 2017 and achieved her Masters of Music Education (Secondary) in 2022 (CQU).

Rodney Waterman

Rodney Waterman studied recorder with Dutch maestro Kees Boeke in Italy and the Netherlands in the 1980s. His repertoire is eclectic, with a particular interest in improvised and spontaneous music making relating to both contemporary and historical musical forms. Since 1998, Rodney has been a regular tutor and performer at festivals and events organised by Orpheus Music. He has also collaborated in concert with Joe Chindamo (piano), Riley Lee (shakuhachi), Ben Robertson (double bass), and Ryan Williams and Natasha Anderson (recorder). Rodney’s CD Água e Vinho, with Melbourne guitarist Doug de Vries, was released on the German ECM label in 2001. Rodney was a regular performer at the Eltham Jazz Festival (2007-10). In 2014 his collaboration with sculptor Paul Blizzard, Dancing the Chisel, was hailed as a highlight of the Ballarat contemporary Festival of Slow Music. In July 2016 Rodney performed in concert with Italian jazz recorder player, Gianluca Barbaro, in Milan, Italy.

2021 saw the release of his solo 'Covid-lockdown' album, twelve fantasias - 12 improvised fantasias for imagined acoustic spaces. And in November 2022, he released the first ever recording, on recorder, of all 8 solo Ricercate (1585) by the Venetian composer, Giovanni Bassano. Rodney performed the complete Ricercate in the Bluestone Chapel, Montsalvat, Eltham on November 5th, 2022. His duo windborne group, with Ryan Williams, is releasing an original, improvisation-based album this year (2023).

Rodney teaches music and Italian in a small rural primary school on the north-eastern fringe of Melbourne.

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