Alan Pendlebury

Bassoon Reedmaking Tutor

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

After studying with Gwydion Brooke and Antony Judd at the Royal Academy of Music, Alan joined the Halle Orchestra. After 7 years he then moved to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and was appointed Section Leader Bassoon in 1987. In the ensuing 27 years he played concertos by Panufnik, Mozart, Rota, Weber, Strauss and Jolivet and in 2011 played the World Premiere of the Gary Carpenter Concerto which was written for him.

During his career, Alan has also played an extensive amount of chamber music. In addition to making over 300 recordings, he also taught the bassoon at the Royal Northern College of Music for over 15 years. Followed by a series of masterclasses in 2001 that the took in the USA.

Over the years, Alan has accrued a vast amount of knowledge about reed making and thoroughly enjoys sharing his expertise with the students at RBC.

In his spare time, Alan likes to do cryptic crosswords, grow fruit, write crime novel reviews and do archery.