The Players

We've searched the four corners of the Earth to bring together the BRLO players. We hand pick the best people and blend together to make the finest brew.

Members of BRLO are a random collective of recorder players and when are not playing music together can be found in many various locations, different employments or lying in gutters somewhere.

Richard Austen is a flautist and produces performing editions of old music. In addition to being buried in old manuscripts, he is a keen baker, gin drinker and lover of all things Swedish. Obviously this lead to the invention of the Swedish Blondie. Although experiments mixing gin with Nordic ingredients have not been entirely successful, we look forward to the inevitable gin based cardamom cake cocktail. But please this time without the addition of pickled herring.

Jennifer Cable graduated from Trinity College of Music in 2005 and has mostly filled her time since with a mixture of playing and teaching. She puts her training to good use by singing Baa Baa Black Sheep 3 million times a day to her obsessed toddler.

Man Cheung was on a quest to learn every musical instrument in the world until he met the overly versatile David Moses, at which point he almost gave up. Although he owns more than 20 woodwind instruments, you’re more likely to find him playing drums at weddings and in clubs. Away from music, he deals drugs (legally) as a hobby.

Julie Dean has her fingers in all the recorder pies. She teaches adults & children, runs recorder groups, holds workshops, arranges music for recorders, has a recorder webshop, plus repairs, sells and makes recorders. She is a proud recorder nerd. She also likes playing with chainsaws so its best not to get into an argument with her.

Annette Gentleman was hooked on music from an early age but pursued a career in IT. When she first started programming, 64K took up a whole room, tapes really did whizz round and round, and lots of lights really did flash! Now she revels in retirement, taking every opportunity to enjoy making music whenever and wherever possible - the perfect antidote to a hectic working life.

Nicky Johns has been playing the recorder since the age of four. She spends half her week writing software to support clinical trials, and the rest of the time she enjoys music and making bags - for anyone or anything that needs one (or even if they don't).

Anna Laddach started playing the recorder at the age of 6, when her school teacher decided the whole class would play twinkle twinkle in the Christmas show. She is a bioinformatics PhD student, which means she works only with computers, this prevents her from accidentally blowing up the lab.

David Moses is incapable of recognising famous people. As a result he has chatted up the Duchess of York in a bar, turned down work offered to him by James Taylor and grudgingly allowed Herbie Hancock to sit in with his band. He lives at home with his wife, three cats and a pond full of frogs & newts.

Pam Smith studied piano, viola and clarinet at Cheetham’s School of Music but rediscovered her recorder about twenty years ago. Since then she has specialised in tutoring recorder groups of all sizes and has conducted many recorder orchestras, most notably the Phoenix Recorder Orchestra with whom she recorded the CD Phase One earlier this year. She lives in Cheltenham, has holidays in Zanzibar, her favourite drink is Orange Blossom Oolong tea, and she insists she is not posh.

Vicky Revell spends her days researching sleep, jet lag and shift work. She picked up her first instrument at the age of two when she also kept scrapbooks of the pope, John McEnroe and wanted to be a dog. The music is the only thing that stuck.

Felicity Squire studied recorder at Trinity College of Music where she learned a great deal about Baroque & Renaissance Music . She has been employed as a music teacher for an unspecified number of years and thanks to working with teenagers has now become an expert in teaching Dance & Techno Music.