Kathryn Thomas ~ Flute
Kathryn Thomas, selected by the Times as a 'Great British Hope', has established a reputation
as a committed solo and chamber musician. She is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, and
has been made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music for distinction in the music profession.
She regularly appears as a recitalist and chamber musician at venues such as the Wigmore
Hall, the South Bank Centre, and the Bridgewater Hall, and at festivals including the BBC Proms,
and is frequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and internationally.
Kathryn has worked with a number of composers including Gyorgy Ligeti, Harrison Birtwistle,
Richard Rodney Bennett, Paul Patterson, Dai Fujicura, Cecilia McDowall, and John McCabe. She
has also performed with orchestras including the London Sinfonietta, Welsh National Opera and
the New Queen’s Hall Orchestra. Her concerto performances include works by Ibert, Honneger,
Arnold, Bach, Rawsthorne, Mozart and Telemann.
Owen Dennis ~ Oboe
Owen Dennis read Mathematics at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and graduated with a
first class honours degree in 1995. He then studied at the Royal Academy of Music with
Douglas Boyd and at the Rotterdam Conservatoire with Emanuel Abbuhl, winning the Leila
Bull prize for oboe as well as the 1999 Royal Overseas League Wind Final. With the Galliard
Ensemble, Owen has released many CD’s including the first recording of Birtwistle’s ‘An
Interrupted Endless Melody’ for oboe and piano. As a BBC Radio 3 New Generation artist,
Owen has performed the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and
numerous live broadcasts, in particular Britten’s ‘Metamorphoses after Ovid’ for solo oboe in
the BBC Proms. In addition to his chamber music, he freelances with the London
Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Mozart Players and the London Sinfonietta and holds the
Principal Oboe seat with English Touring Opera.
Katherine Spencer ~ Clarinet
Katherine Spencer made her concerto debut at the age of fourteen at the Royal
Festival Hall and has since performed there as concerto soloist a further
three times, has appeared as soloist at the Birmingham Symphony Hall, made
a live Radio 3 broadcast from the Free Trade Hall, Manchester and performed
many times on Classic FM and Hessiche Rundfunk. She has recorded the Brahms
Sonata and Beethoven Trio for the Oxford Classic label with Sam Haywood and
Martin Storey. Her prizes include 1997 Yamaha European Foundation award winner,
prize winner in Concertina Praga competition which lead to tours of Austria,
the former Yugoslavia and the Czech Republic and more recently she was awarded
the Munster "Star Award" and was invited to join their recital scheme. As
a chamber musician Katherine has performed Mozart with the Amadeus Quartet
in the presence of HRH the Emperor of Japan. She has performed internationally
with her ensemble "Ragnaroks".
Richard Bayliss ~ Horn
Richard studied the horn at the Royal Academy of Music with Derek Taylor and Andrew Clark. During this time he
appeared as soloist with the RAM String Orchestra in Haydn's Concerto for two horns and Britten's Serenade for
tenor, horn and strings. Richard has performed with many of the UK’s leading Orchestras, including
the Royal Philharmonic, and Ulster Orchestra, London Mozart Players, English Chamber and Scottish
Chamber Orchestras, and as a natural horn player he has performed with the Gabrieli Consort, English Baroque Soloists,
and London Handel Orchestra. His interest in Chamber Music has led to recent performances of Mozart Quintet for horn and strings, and the York Bowen Quintet, and performances
and recordings with the Golden Section Brass Ensemble.
Helen Simons ~ Bassoon
Helen lived in Devon before moving to London to study at the Purcell School
of Music. She continued her studies with scholarships to the Royal Academy of Music
and the Hochschule fur Musik in Vienna, studying with John Orford, Rachel Gough, Milan Turkovic,
and David Chatterton. After several years of freelancing with London’s symphony and chamber
orchestras, Helen took a position in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra where she has been a member for
5 years. She continues to freelance with groups such as the English Chamber Orchestra and the London
Sinfonietta alongside her positions in the orchestra, the Galliard Ensemble, and the chamber group
Chroma. Helen also has an interest in education work, and is a member of the RPO education team,
taking music into schools, hospitals, day centres and youth clubs. As a soloist Helen has
performed several of the bassoon concertos, including 39 performances of the Mozart Concerto on a
tour around France with the Junge Philharmonie Koln.