Tutors
Laurence Perkins
'Wind Serenades' Director
Music-making in beautiful locations has always held a special attraction with musicians, and this series of courses established by Laurence Perkins ten years ago has been a great success with wind players who share this enthusiasm. As one of Britain’s leading solo and orchestral bassoonists, Laurence’s work includes more than 30 years as Principal Bassoonist in Manchester Camerata, with whom he has given concerts as far afield as Japan, Hong Kong and Australia. His work as a soloist is well-known internationally through his CDs for the Hyperion label, including ‘Bassoon Concertos’ (including Mozart and Weber) which was awarded five stars for performance in the BBC Music Magazine, and ‘The Playful Pachyderm’ - a collection of classic bassoon miniatures with the New London Orchestra conducted by Ronald Corp which received outstanding acclaim in the national press. One of his great loves in life is working with amateur musicians - alongside his ‘Wind Serenades’ courses, he is one of the tutors on the new Malvern wind chamber music summer school, and has tutored on summer schools at Aberystwyth, Kammermusik in Oxford, Dartington International Summer School and the ‘Cubertou’ course in the south of France. In the very small amount of spare time available, other activities include hill-walking and landscape photography.
Lynda Coffin lives in Sidcup, Kent and is a flute professor at Trinity College of Music. She studied the flute with Geoffrey Gilbert and the celebrated Marcel Moyse. Lynda has held principal flute positions with several orchestras, including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. She has also been a member of the Nash Chamber ensemble. Lynda’s solo and chamber music work has involved many recordings and radio and television broadcasts, including duo flute recitals for the BBC with James Galway. Her work in recording sessions has been highly commended, including the solo flute part in the film 'Emma', awarded an Oscar for the music sound-track. Lynda is currently principal flute with the London Concert and Mozart Festival Orchestras. During the Summer she enjoys coaching at the 'Malvern Winds' chamber music summer course, and the ‘Cubertou’ wind chamber music course in the south of France.
Sarah Watts
clarinet / bass clarinet
Sarah Watts studied clarinet at the Royal Academy of Music with Angela Malsbury and Victoria Soames Samek (bass clarinet). Sarah then decided to specialise in the bass clarinet and studied at the Rotterdam Conservatorium on the postgraduate solo bass clarinet course with Henri Bok, funded by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and in 2002 a Leverhulme Trust Studentship. At the end of her course in Rotterdam Sarah was awarded the Exxon prize for the best classical music student.
Successes include: Winner, UK Howarth Clarinet Competition 2000; Winner, Hawkes Clarinet Prize (RAM) 2001; Winner, Sir Arthur Bliss Chamber Music Prize (RAM) 2000; Winner of wind section and Faber Prize, UK Performing Australian Music competition, 2001 (her clarinet and bass clarinet recital was broadcast on ABC radio); Finalist, Wind section, Royal Overseas League Competition 2000. Sarah has performed clarinet concertos with the Royal Academy of Music Sinfonia, European Union Youth Wind Orchestra and the Nottingham Orchestra of the Restoration.
Sarah also specialises on the bass clarinet with the intention of increasing its popularity as a solo instrument. She has performed solo repertoire across the UK, Ireland, Europe and America and has attracted composers such as Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Marc Yeats, Ian Wilson, Kevin O Connell, Alicia Grant and Sungji Hong to write works for her. In January 2003, Sarah performed a solo bass clarinet recital in London’s Purcell Room as part of the Park Lane Group Young Artist Series.
Sarah teaches bass clarinet for the RAF and at Nottingham University and has also set up a solo bass clarinet course on the Isle of Raasay in Scotland. Sarah has given workshops on bass clarinet technique at many establishments including the Royal Academy of Music, Trinity College of Music, The Royal Welsh College of Music, The Royal Northern College of Music, The Royal Irish Academy of Music, Keele University and Edinburgh University. Sarah has recently started studying for a PHD in contemporary bass clarinet techniques analysis at Keele University. Sarah is a Gonzalez artist and plays on Gonzalez bass clarinet reeds.