David Baker
David studied with Richard King (Halle Orchestra) at the Music Department of Huddersfield Polytechnic, specialising in performance and composition. After a further two years post graduate study at the RNCM (supported by a scholarship from the Countess of Munster Trust Fund) and under the tutelage of Edward Warren (principal bassoon with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra) David gained a PG dip. (RNCM) in orchestral studies and joined the Miladi Ensemble, with whom he performed a wide variety of music for wind and piano and gave a Wigmore Hall recital.
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After freelancing with all the Northern based symphony and chamber orchestras; playing principal bassoon with the BBC Philharmonic and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestras, David was appointed as principal bassoon with The Northern Chamber Orchestra in 1985 and two years later as principal bassoon of The Orchestra of the Golden Age (playing on 'original' instruments).
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In 1991, David became sub principal bassoon with The Orchestra of Opera North based in Leeds, a post he holds to this day.
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Anthea Wood
Anthea Wood is one of the leading freelance bassoonists in the UK today and has worked with orchestras, ballet and opera companies from London to Glasgow. Anthea originally hails from Chesterfield in Derbyshire.
Whilst a student at Huddersfield University she worked with Stockhausen, Ligeti, MacMillan, Berio and Maxwell Davies. On completing her studies with William Waterhouse at the RNCM she began regular work with Manchester Camerata and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
Her teaching credentials have stretched to being on the bassoon staff at Chethams, Napier, Lancaster and Liverpool Universities, as well as regularly coaching National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and examining at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Now resident in Glasgow she has worked with every major ensemble. Her freelance work with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra saw her playing principal bassoon at the Proms in 2013 for the Proms premiere of MacMillan's violin concerto.
Her love and knowledge of chamber music has seen her appear with Ensemble 360 (Music in the Round), Goldberg Ensemble, SCO and RSNO Winds amongst others.
Anthea plays on an early 8000 series Heckel bassoon made in 1938.
Its previous owner was the late Manfred Arlen, former Principal bassoon in the RLPO and co-writer (along with Fritz Spiegl) of the Radio 4 UK Theme.
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Adam Mackenzie
Adam is the Principal Bassoonist of Opera North, a position he has held since December 2017.
After leaving the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2004, Adam has studied in Milan (Accademia del Teatro alla Scala) with Valentino Zucchiatti and with Dag Jensen in Hanover before settling down to a 12-year freelance career.
In that time, whilst living in London, Adam worked with most UK orchestras and chamber orchestras but, remarkably, had very little to do with opera. He is making up for this oversight now.
Adam has been an active chamber musician. As a member of the New London Chamber Ensemble he played at the Wigmore Hall with pianist Angela Hewitt, performed Berio’s Opus Zoo choreographed and from memory, and recorded works by Lenox Berkeley (Naxos). As a member of Chamber Domaine, Adam has performed Rossini’s Giovanna d’Arco for an installation by Anish Kapoor, recorded Britten’s Sinfonietta and Bridge’s There is a Willow Aslant a Brook (Resonus) and given performances of Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale to hundreds of children. Adam has also played this Faustian cabaret piece from memory whilst acting in a fully staged production at the Old Vic Theatre, London.
Adam is passionate about contemporary music and has a particular interest in the use of improvisation in composition. Adam was part of the team who created a modern perspective on Purcell’s King Arthur with Peter Weigold and Club Inegales in London’s Wilton’s Music Hall and in 2014 went on tour to India with the Britten Sinfonia and world leading sarod player Amjad Ali Khan.
Adam’s interest in the freedom improvisation brings has led him to take a serious involvement in music education. As Director of Education for English Sinfonia and Brandenburg Sinfonia Adam has devised and delivered composition projects up and down the country with seasoned professionals and non-musicians alike, narrated Peter and the Wolf many times with groups such as London Mozart Players and Sinfonia ViVA (of which he was a member for some years) and brought together over 800 children for a massed concert in Fairfield Hall. He currently teaches at Chetham’s School of Music.
Adam lives outside Leeds with his headteacher wife and two children. He likes running, hiking and avoiding Lego left on the floor.
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