Tutors 2026

Tutors announced once a week from the 1st of April until August 1st.

International Tutors

Stegmann proved one of the stars of the afternoon, especially with her superb performance of Vivaldi’s Concerto in C for soprano recorder which brought an added enthusiastic ovation after its virtuosic first movement." (Daily Telegraph, January 2016). She “loves the stage and her instrument and feels the music until the tip of her toes” (Stadsnieuws Tilburg 2011).
 
She is a passionate performer and teacher of early and contemporary recorder music, teaching workshops and masterclasses throughout the year in many  European countries and beyond. Since 2014 she is recorder professor at the Royal Academy of Music in  London, where she teaches a selected and enthusiastic group of next generation recorder players.
 
Since 2013 she is co-organising the Open Recorder Days Amsterdam; a biennale which has quickly grown into one of the biggest recorder events worldwide and brings together recorder amateurs and professionals alike from across the globe.

Anna regularly tours with her own ensembles Ensemble Odyssee and The Royal Wind Music. With these ensembles and as a soloist she has recorded Cds for the labels Glossa, Pan Classics, Lindoro and others. She also fosters a close musical relationship with violinist Jorge Jiménez - a duo which explores all music from the middle ages to the present day in exciting new concert formats.  As a guest musician and soloist she has appeared in renowned ensembles such as La Risonanza (Fabio Bonizzoni), L'Arpeggiata (Christina Pluhar), Musica Sequenza  (Burak Özdemir), The New Dutch Academy (Simon Murphy) , the Rotterdams Philarmonisch Orkest (led by Jordi Savall and Peter Dijkstra).

Anna began her journey as recorder player by taking private lessons with Gudula Rosa. Studies with Winfried Michel (Musikhoschchule Münster and Musikakademie Kassel) followed, before she settled in Amsterdam, where she studied with Paul Leenhouts and obtained her Master of Music with  distinction in 2011.

Chris is passionate about all aspects of music, from performance as a solo and chamber recorder player, conducting orchestras and ensembles, to teaching the next generation of young musicians.

​Currently running the recorder departments at the Junior and Senior Schools of the Royal Northern College of Music and Chetham's School of Music in Manchester UK, visiting tutor at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, chamber music and the orchestral programme at L' Escola Joan Llongueres in Barcelona, he is also in demand worldwide working with recorder players and composers. He has given masterclasses, concerts, workshops and adjudicated competitions at the Royal Academy of Music, Krakow Academy of Music, Royal Northern College of Music, Dulwich College Singapore, and at the universities of Hull, York and Birmingham.

​As a conductor, Chris has trained the young musicians of the Junior RNCM Wind Ensemble, Stockport Youth Orchestra, the National Youth Recorder Orchestra of Great Britain, ensembles at Chetham's School of Music and currently conducts the Junior RNCM Chamber Orchestra. He has been invited to conduct ensembles throughout the UK, Singapore, Spain and Germany.

​Chris performs solo repertoire from the 12th Century up to music of today. Composers such as Thomas Simaku, Edward Gregson and  Michal Pawelek have composed and dedicated solo works for Chris. His recitals have taken place in the Wigmore Hall London, Bridgewater Hall Manchester, Symphony Hall Birmingham, Philharmonic Hall, Krakow, Budapest Castle, and in venues in Singapore, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Poland, Bulgaria and Spain.

​Chris studied recorder with Ross Winters, Annabel Knight and Anneke Boeke, conducting with Jordi Mora, Dalcroze Eurhythmics with Bethan Habron - James and at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and L'Escola Superior de Musica de Catalunya (ESMUC) in Barcelona.

​Awards include 1st Prize at the Moeck/SRP International Recorder Player Competition 2007, BBC Fame Academy Bursary 2007, Silver Medal of the Worshipful Company of Musicians and 2nd Prize, Prix du Jury and Gaudeamus Prize  at the Penderecki Contemporary Music Competition, Poland. He has adjudicated for the Moeck/SRP competition, the Prince's Prize, the Maisie Lewis Prize and Live Music Now!. Chris has broadcast live on and recorded for BBC Radio 3 and BBC Television. In 2012, Chris was awarded Honorary Membership (HonBC) of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire for his achievements in the field of music and education.

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National Tutors (A-Z)

Joanne Arnott is a recorder player, teacher and conductor with a deep love for traditional recorder repertoire from the baroque, renaissance and medieval periods as well as modern music with different electronic mediums. She is currently based on the NSW Central Coast and teaches at the Central Coast Conservatorium of Music. With Bachelor, Honours and Master’s degrees from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and over 25 years teaching and performing experience, Jo has performed with groups such as Bel A Capella, Innominata, Consort 8, and Thoroughbass, and has tutored at early music, recorder, band and orchestral workshops throughout Australia.

Jo is passionate about spreading a deeper understanding and knowledge about the beauty of the recorder’s sound as well as its versatile capabilities in the context of modern music. As a founding member of The Australian Recorder Project, Joanne has designed and run workshops for recorder players of all ages and levels. The ARP perform historical and modern repertoire to metropolitan and rural audiences with the aim of bringing recorders into a more prominent position in the Australian music scene.

Jo is currently working on albums which involve solo baroque works, modern works for recorders and collaborations with local artists from the Central Coast/Sydney/Newcastle Hunter region. For these albums Jo is creating new works for recorder and recorder ensembles that use amplification and live effects as well as backing tracks and soundscapes using field recordings from the local environment.

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.

 Alana has performed with a range of ensembles including The Australian Recorder Project, The Royal Wind Music, The New Dutch Academy, Salut! Baroque, The Bell Shakespeare Company, Pinchgut Opera, The Sydney Consort, ThoroughBass, The Tall Poppeas and The Sydneian Bach Choir. As a soloist, she has performed concerti with The Early Music Ensemble of the Sydney Conservatorium, The Manly-Warringah Symphony Orchestra, Coro Innominata and The Bourbaki Ensemble. She has also performed live in Radio broadcasts throughout Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Austria and The Netherlands.
 
After completing a Bachelor of Music (performance) degree with First Class Honours at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2004, Alana was awarded a University of Sydney Postgraduate Award to continue with a Master of Music (performance) degree specialising in contemporary Japanese compositions for recorder under the instruction of Hans-Dieter Michatz. With the help of the Ian Potter Cultural Trust and PPCA Performers’ Trust, Alana graduated from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in December 2010 under Paul Leenhouts.

 
Alana has received several awards and accolades including the Don Cowell Memorial Trust, Create NSW, Regional Arts NSW, CASP, the ABC, and the American Recorder Society. She was made a Regional Futures collaborator in 2022 and named the 2025 Sitka Recorder Resident (USA). She appears on 6 CDs, and has commissioned and performed new works by Ros Bandt, Eve Klein, Amanda Cole, Donna Hewitt, Paul Smith, Daniel Portelli, Mark Oliveiro and Corrina Bonshek and more.

 Alana was awarded an Australian Postgraduate Award to complete a PhD investigating the professional identity of chamber musicians and group processes. She is now a Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of New England lecturing in performance, studio pedagogy, ensemble studies, and music appreciation, winning numerous awards and grants for teaching and publishing research in music, and recorder pedagogy and cultural history.

Described as a “virtuoso, scholar, [and] presenter … of rare charm and lucidity” by the press, recorder player Brendan O’Donnell is dedicated to bringing early and contemporary music to life for the audiences of today. He has earned a reputation for direct communication and thoughtful programming, inviting listeners to experience music they might otherwise never encounter.

Performing in churches and cabaret clubs, in concert halls and on dingy stages normally reserved for DJs or late-night comedy, Brendan regularly aims events at young adult audiences, foregoing traditional concert venues in favour of settings that encourage intimacy, interaction, and dynamic presentation

Brendan is a regular performer with Adelaide Baroque and Adelaide Cantata Band and has taken part in the Adelaide Fringe Festival and the acclaimed Woodend Winter Arts Festival. For several years he performed with Munich-based Ensemble Raccanto in locations such as the Bach Museum in Leipzig and the Barocksaal in Benediktbauern Abbey. He was also chosen to present his solo program “Seeking Australia” as a part of the European Recorder Players’ Society conference in Bolzano, Italy in 2019.

After first completing a degree in political science, Brendan went on to study recorder at a tertiary level: first in New Zealand with Kamala Bain, later in Salzburg with Dorothee Oberlinger, where he completed a master’s degree in 2013. He returned to Adelaide in 2021, where he lives with his partner and their two children.

Rodney Waterman is an Australian recorder player with a particular interest in improvised and spontaneous music making. He has been a regular tutor at Orpheus Music recorder festivals in Armidale NSW since 1998. At the 2024 Festival he performed a solo recital of Bassano ricercate and a selection of his own fantasias. Rodney’s duo album Água e Vinho with Melbourne guitarist Doug de Vries was released on the German ECM label in 2000. This year (2025) Rodney and Doug will celebrate the 25thAnniversary of the album’s release in concert. Rodney was a regular performer at the Eltham Jazz Festival(2007-10), including performances of Ade Monsbourgh’s Recorder in Ragtime music with trad jazz bands.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, Gian luca Barbaro, in Milan, Italy. 2021 saw the release of Rodney’s solo album twelve fantasias–12 improvised fantasias for imagined acoustic spaces. And in November 2022, he released the first ever recording, on recorder, of all eight solo Ricercate (1585) by the Venetian composer, Giovanni Bassano. Rodney performed the complete Ricercatein the Bluestone Chapel, Montsalvat, Eltham on November 5th, 2022. In January 2024, his Duo Windborne group with recorder player Ryan Williams, launched an original, totally improvised album, Venus Bay Fireside Sessions. Rodney teaches music and Italian in a small semi-rural primary school on the north-eastern fringe of Melbourne