Tutors 2025

Sarah Jeffery

Sarah Jeffery is a prominent figure in the recorder world, known for her passion for both early and contemporary music. She has commissioned and premiered numerous contemporary works and has performed globally at prestigious festivals and stages. Notable accolades include being appointed ‘Recorder Professor Specializing in Contemporary Music’ at the Royal College of Music in London and receiving the Best of Classical Music 2020 award. Sarah is also recognized for her educational efforts, including online tutorials on her YouTube channel, Team Recorder, with over 170,000 subscribers. She is based in Amsterdam and holds degrees from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and Birmingham Conservatoire, under the guidance of esteemed pedagogues.

Hannah Coleman

Melbourne-based recorder player Hannah Coleman is a dedicated music educator, and passionate performing musician. She has performed with leading ensembles including the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Ludovico’s Band, Genesis Baroque, Plexus, Opera Victoria and Bach Akademie Australia. As a chamber musician, she performs with recorder ensemble The Recorder Co-op.  She recorded Nigel Westlake’s soundtrack for the film Paper Planes, with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, released on ABC Classics and has broadcast for ABC Classic FM, 3MBS, and Radio 4 NL. Hannah teaches recorder to students of a variety of ages locally and online, tutors regularly at recorder workshops across Australia and teaches classroom music at a school in Melbourne's west.

Alicia Crossley

Brendan O'Donnell

Described as a “virtuoso, scholar, [and] presenter … of rare charm and lucidity”, recorder player Brendan O’Donnell performs regularly with Adelaide Baroque and Adelaide Cantata Band, alongside frequent solo outings, including his innovative program “Bird/Song” at the 2023 Adelaide Fringe Festival. For several years he performed with Munich-based Ensemble Raccanto and was a founding member of the contemporary and early music ensemble Cembaless (Germany/Austria). 

He is an experienced teacher: for 8 years, Brendan taught at various music schools in Bavaria alongside private teaching and ensemble coaching. In 2019 he tutored at the recorder course Musiktage am Chiemsee (Germany), and since 2022 has been a regular tutor at the Orpheus recorder courses. He gives workshops for the Society of Recorder Players SA and provides coaching for students and ensembles of all levels in Adelaide. Brendan also plays and teaches clarinet, saxophone and piano

Ruth Wilkinson

Ruth Wilkinson has had a full and fascinating career through her life as a recorder player and viola da gambist. Her performances range from medieval music, the baroque to the 21st century. With the ensembles La Romanesca and Capella Corelli she was part of a pioneering revival of early music in Australia that led to a busy life which included touring widely for Musica Viva both in Australia, Europe and Asia. These ensembles introduced new sounds and music long forgotten to eager audiences who were ready to embrace the new movement which was challenging old ideas of performance of early music.

More recently Ruth has been a member of Ludovico’s Band, Elysium Ensemble, Genesis baroque, and The Recorder Co-op with her colleagues Hannah Coleman, Alex Bailliet-Joly and Ryan Williams,. Ruth has another life as a viola da gambist, and preforms with the viol consort, Consortium. With all these collaborations Ruth is continually inspired and enjoys a rich concert life. She has been a frequent tutor at the Orpheus summer workshops and in many workshops around the country from Western Australia to North Queensland.

Ruth is known for her skills as a teacher and is equally comfortable guiding students from kindergarten to tertiary level to keen mature age students wanting to improve their skills. At The University of Melbourne Ruth has directed many Early Music ensembles and is currently co-director of the Medieval and Renaissance Ensemble and teacher of the recorder. Many students have benefitted from her teaching and have gone on to professional careers as recorder players.

Ruth has a diverse list of recordings from Medieval music to the present day. Most recently she has collaborated with composer and sound artist Ros Bandt in their latest recording Bird Song.. and with Cynthia O’Brien, baroque violin in their recording Concert à deux in the splendid acoustic of the Church of Santa Maria Nuova in Cortona Italy. Her solo recorder recordings feature sonatas of Handel and Dieupart. Ruth was inspired to take this career path because of her rich experience as a student at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis where she studied the recorder with Hans-Martin Linde and viola da gamba with Jordi Savall. When not performing or teaching Ruth can be found practising the recorder, wrestling with the intricacies and challenges of music from the ars subtillier or nutting out a complicated knitting pattern.