Looking back over a busy summer of music-making, I have fond memories of my day at the Gloucester Double Reed Day held at Pate’s Grammar School, Cheltenham on 2 July. Brilliantly organised by Caron de Burgh and her amazing team, the day was packed with events including masterclasses for oboe and bassoon, chamber music and double reed band, reed making classes (Liam Fleet and George Bailey), Alexander Technique (Jenny Steele) and more. The trade stands included Crook and Staple, Wiggins Music, Army Recruitment and the British Double Reed Society as well as a highly-supportive presence by Howarths and I enjoyed my conversations with Will Ring and Iona Walker whilst trying out a range of new oboes!

The classes that I gave that day included some lovely oboe playing from Helen Venn, Daniel Ho , Sue Newman, Leandra Gorgulu, Iona Nettleton, Barney Ratcliffe, Nicola Leitao, Hugh Major, Aidi Lu and Isaac Stringer. Beautifully accompanied by Kit Perona-Wright, I also enjoyed playing the first movement of the Rubbra Sonata with him in our performnace at the end of the day. It was great to share this event with the wonderful Jarek Augustyniak whose performances of many famous orchestral bassoon solos were captivating!

Well done all and thank you to Caron for masterminding an event that had done so much for double reed playing!

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