Annabel Knight
Head of Recorder
Recorder player and historical flautist Annabel Knight enjoys a wide-ranging career as performer, teacher, arranger, and editor. She is a founder member of the baroque ensemble Passacaglia, with whom she has toured internationally and recorded albums featuring Telemann, C. P. E. Bach, Boismortier, Arne, Dornel, and Philidor.
With the recorder consort Fontanella, Annabel explores repertoire from the late medieval and Renaissance periods on historically authentic consort instruments, alongside contemporary works and original arrangements that engage audiences of all ages.
As a freelance performer she has appeared on film and TV soundtracks including Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Philomena, Fantastic Mr Fox, Wicked, and Channel 4’s 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. Her 2010 critically acclaimed recording of Gordon Jacob’s complete music for recorder with the Maggini Quartet was released on Naxos.
Annabel also maintains a busy career as a historical flautist, performing with groups such as the English Baroque Soloists, Armonico Consort, Norwich Baroque, Musical and Amicable Society, and The Sixteen. She has edited and recorded for Schott’s Baroque Flute Anthology (Vols. 1–2) and the soundtracks to Boosey & Hawkes’ Bartók Edition for flute and Grade by Grade Flute series.
A dedicated educator, Annabel heads the thriving Recorder Department at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where she leads teaching, conferences, and festivals on Recorder and Historical Performance. She also teaches at Wells Cathedral School, local schools, adult courses such as Recorders for All, and the NORVIS summer school. She founded and runs the Woodhouse Recorder Courses, and is a regular tutor for the National Youth Recorder Orchestra.
Her contributions extend to curriculum design and assessment: she has been a syllabus consultant for ABRSM and Trinity College London, contributed filmed resources to ABRSM’s CPD course Teaching the Recorder with Confidence (2025) and served as a juror for the Moeck/SRP Recorder Competition (2023) and Tel Aviv Recorder Festival (2020). She is currently Vice-Chair of ERTA (UK).
Since 2020, Annabel has also run AK Music, an online business publishing original recorder ensemble arrangements for players of all levels.