We are a collective that offers recitals of varying instrumentation. Here are some of our core players.
Nicola Hands (oboe, Artistic Director) is a busy freelance oboist based in London, whose playing is 'penetrating, elegant and wonderfully flexible', and whose ‘warm, full tone is affecting’. She graduated in 2013 with Distinction from the Royal Academy of Music Masters programme, where she was awarded the Evelyn Barbirolli prize for oboe and the Grimaldi Cor Anglais Scholarship.
Nicola is currently on trial as principal oboe with English National Ballet, and has previously trialled with RTÉ Concert Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra. From 2015 to 2017 she was the 2nd oboe and principal cor anglais player for the Orquestra do Norte, Portugal. As a freelancer Nicola has performed with English National Opera, Chineke!, Aurora Orchestra, Orchestra of the Swan, City of London Sinfonia, Wexford Festival Opera, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Royal Ballet Sinfonia amongst others. Nicola also plays for musical theatre, and has played for shows in the West End.
As a soloist, Nicola has performed concerti by Gipss, Martinů, Vaughan Williams, Mozart, Marcello, Albinoni and Strauss. In 2015 she was awarded a Jellinek soloist’s award by Croydon Symphony Orchestra. She is also part of a duo with pianist Jonathan Pease, and together they have released two albums: ‘Light and Shade’ and ‘Phoenix’.
Nicola Crowe (flute) studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music before continuing her training at the Royal College of Music in London. She has performed with a wide range of orchestras across the UK, Australia, and Asia, including the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, English National Ballet Philharmonic, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, and Macao Symphony Orchestra. In Australia, she has held contract positions with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Opera Australia Orchestra, and has also performed with numerous other Australian orchestras.
A passionate chamber musician, Nicola is particularly drawn to the collaborative and expressive nature of small ensemble performance. Alongside her performing career, she is an experienced educator who has taught in higher education and across all school age groups, from primary to secondary level.
Nicola holds a PGCEi with a specialism in Group Instrumental Teaching, reflecting her commitment to high-quality music education. She is dedicated to nurturing musical development, confidence, and a lifelong love of music-making in students at every stage of their learning journey.
Lana Bode (piano) is an American-British pianist, programmer and artistic director, whose performances have been described as ‘expertly calibrated’ (BBC Music Magazine) and ‘deeply examined’ (Gramophone). She is a leading interpreter of contemporary music and an innovative cross-arts programmer. She performs as a solo pianist and in collaboration with leading singers and instrumentalists including Robert Cohen, Marcus Farnsworth, Alessandro Fisher, Anna Harvey, Robert Murray, Mark Padmore, Lucy Schaufer and James Turnbull. A champion of new music, Lana has commissioned works by Charlotte Bray, Richard Barnard and Jeremy Thurlow. She has also collaborated with composers Alison Bauld, Harrison Birtwistle, Jonathan Dove, Helen Grime, Sadie Harrison, Libby Larsen, Kevin Malone, Zoë Martlew, Mark-Anthony Turnage and Judith Weir.
Lana’s recital career has taken her from major London venues to festivals around the UK including Aldeburgh Festival, Barbican Hall, Kings Place, Purcell Room, Snape Proms and Wigmore Hall. Her discography on Delphian Records includes the highly-acclaimed I and Silence: Women’s Voices in American Song with mezzo-soprano Marta Fontanals-Simmons, and dream.risk.sing: elevating women’s voices with soprano Samantha Crawford.
Lana is co-founder and Artistic Director of the Virginia Woolf & Music concert project, and a faculty member at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.
Sarah Thurlow (clarinet) studied at the Royal College of Music in London, as well as in Aspen, Colorado, and in Italy where she was a pupil of Hans Deinzer.
Sarah has performed concertos by Finzi, Weber, Mozart, Strauss, Copland, Debussy (with the Philharmonia) and Rossini (with the BBC Concert Orchestra). She has given recitals at the Purcell Room, St John's Smith Square, and Bridgewater Hall. She was appointed Sub-principal clarinet with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in December 2023, but also maintains a busy freelance orchestral career. She can be heard playing in the LSO clarinet section on the soundtracks of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and Star Wars Episode II : Attack of the Clones.
Amy Thompson (bassoon) studied as a Musicians' Company Lambert Scholar at the Royal College of Music, where she was awarded the Howarth Bassoon Prize. Her work as a bassoonist includes multiple engagements with Ulster Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, London Sinfonietta, Orpheus Sinfonia, and Bath Philharmonia, as well as recent work with Kristiansand Symfoniorkester (Norway) and London Contemporary Orchestra.
She has given recitals for St. John's Smith Square, Conway Hall, Surrey Hills International Music Festival, and Nottingham Chamber Music Festival. In addition to this, Amy has recorded several CDs of bassoon trios and quartets for Hyperion Records, and has performed concertos by Maconchy, Weber, Crusell, Vivaldi, and Bach with orchestra.
Aside from playing Amy runs London Reeds, supplying bassoon reeds to several players with jobs in ABO1 orchestras, as well as amateurs and freelancers.
Emma Halnan (flute) has been in demand for her solo and collaborative performances in the UK and internationally since winning the woodwind category of the BBC Young Musician competition in 2010. She has performed as concerto soloist with orchestras such as the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the London Mozart Players; she also recorded David Matthews’ flute concerto with the Ulster Orchestra. Emma has performed live on BBC television and radio, including on Radio 3’s “In Tune”.
Orchestrally, Emma has worked with ensembles including the Ulster Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, London Mozart Players, BBC orchestras, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, English Touring Opera and English National Opera.
Emma teaches flute at Wells Cathedral School and the University of Cambridge.
Emma was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) in 2024, an honour awarded to alumni of the Academy who have distinguished themselves in the music profession.
Helen Pierce (clarinet) graduated from Goldsmith’s University and continued her studies at Trinity College of Music for a Masters degree, which she passed with distinction. She was awarded the Wilfred Hambleton prize for clarinet and went on to study in Germany and Italy with Hans Deinzer. Whilst in Germany Helen worked with the country’s leading contemporary music group ‘Ensemble Modern’, touring with them to Cologne, Brussels and Frankfurt. She also played with Darmstadt Staatstheater Opera Orchestra and with Frankfurt Schauspiel.
In the UK Helen has worked with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Ballet Sinfonia, English Sinfonia, Manning Camerata, Covent Garden Sinfonia and Britten Pears Orchestra amongst others. She plays principal clarinet with St Paul’s Sinfonia. In the field of chamber music, Helen plays with the quartet Clariphonics who were semi-finalists in the Royal Overseas League Competition and were selected as Park Lane Group Young Artists in 2009. Their Purcell Room recital was received with great acclaim:
‘Clariphonics delivered spirited musicianship’ according to The Guardian who awarded the performance four stars.
Sessions Helen has played on include Miguel d’Oliveira’s score for The Prosecutors (BBC 4) and Walton’s Façade for Suzy Klein’s ‘Our Classical Century’ (BBC 4). As a bass clarinettist and saxophonist Helen is a regular visitor to Cornwall’s St. Endellion Summer Music Festival.
Anna Drysdale (french horn) is the 2nd horn of Scottish Opera, and has been playing with the Tailleferre Ensemble since 2021. She studied at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, winning prizes including the Dennis Brain Horn Prize and the Richard III Prize for Early Music. As a student, she toured with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and the European Union Youth Orchestra; she also auditioned successfully for a number of training schemes with UK orchestras, including the Academy of Ancient Music’s AAMplify Orchestra, LSO Brass Academy and playing guest principal horn with the LPO Future Firsts Ensemble.
She has trialled with orchestras including Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and BBC Philharmonic. For the past few years, she has been the principal horn with English Touring Opera, receiving recent critical acclaim for performances of Bellini’s “I Capuleti e I Montecchi”, with reviewers lauding “the sheer quality of the musical performances…complemented by some instrumental solos that were very fine indeed, notably the horn solo for Giulietta’s opening aria“. She has also played with UK orchestras including Britten Sinfonia, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Welsh National Opera, London Mozart Players and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
Anna is passionate about solo and chamber repertoire. She has performed Brandenburg 1 several times with leading UK baroque ensemble Florilegium, and has recorded the work for a forthcoming CD alongside Anneke Scott with the collective Solomon’s Knot. She has performed a complete cycle of Mozart Horn Concertos on the natural horn with the Amadè Players, and Mozart 3 and Strauss’s 1st Horn Concerto with both orchestras at Harrow Young Musicians, the organisation that originally kindled her love of music. She also performed Ethel Smyth’s Concerto for Horn, Violin and Orchestra in 2018. On the modern horn, she was the 2015 winner of the Paxman Prize; 2015 also saw her first appearance at the British Horn Society’s annual meeting in Liverpool as a featured soloist. She is a regular guest with period wind sextet Boxwood and Brass and chamber collectives the Berkeley Ensemble and Istante Collective, and has explored much of the wind chamber repertoire with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra Wind Soloists and the Hastings Philharmonic Wind Quintet.
Jennifer Dunsmore (clarinet) studied her Undergraduate at the Royal College of Music, then Masters in clarinet at the Royal Academy of Music with Mark van de Wiel, Angela Malsbury, and Laurent Ben Slimane. She freelances with ensembles and orchestras around the UK, at venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Cadogan Hall, Hackney Empire, St David’s Hall, and Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, as well as festivals, namely the Edinburgh Fringe, Cumnock Tryst, and the BBC Proms. Jennifer has also recorded at Abbey Road Studios and the English National Opera’s Lilian Baylis House.
Jennifer has played with internationally revered conductors including Sir Mark Elder, Semyon Bychkov, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Christopher Hogwood, and Ed Gardner. Outside the UK, she has performed across Europe, Asia, and North America. She enjoys playing diverse musical styles – performing on the Wilderness Festival’s Atrium stage, in a birthday celebration for jazz legend Norma Winston at Cadogan Hall, Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s music conducted by the composer, an opera with libretto written and performed by Stephen Fry, and New York Counterpoint at the Glasgow Minimal Festival in the presence of Steve Reich. Jennifer was invited to perform a sonata for clarinet and piano composed by the pioneering Alice Mary Smith at the Royal Academy of Music’s Amazing Women of The Academy exhibition opening.