Lunchtime Early Music Concert

Lunchtime Early Music Concert

Elizabeth McCall recorder
William Sherratt (pictured) baroque oboe
Aidan Hopkins baroque cello
Martin Perkins harpsichord

Bach Oboe Sonata in E flat
Corelli Recorder Sonata
Telemann Trio Sonata in D minor

Elizabeth McCall’s lifelong passion for playing the recorder started at a young age, with her school’s recorder club. She continued playing recorder while studying the oboe at Aberdeen City Music School, where she won their annual junior Player of the Year competition with a performance on both instruments.

In 2024 she graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she trained as a recorder player under Ian Wilson, with additional tuition from Robert Erlich, Karel van Steenhoven, Mirjam-Luise Munzel, Catherine Fleming (Alexander technique), and Gail Hennessy (baroque oboe). After a year back in her hometown of Edinburgh, to focus on independent study and private music teaching, Elizabeth has begun her master’s degree at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and is a recipient of the Corton-Hyde Early Music Scholarship.

Although she continues to play both recorder and oboe in a variety of musical styles and on both modern and period instruments, she is primarily a recorder player who specialises in historically-informed performance and has particular love of music from the baroque era. 

William Sherratt is from Stratford-upon-Avon, and attended Shakespeare's school there, where in addition to having oboe and saxophone lessons, he sang in the chapel choir, and played in the wind quintet, orchestra, concert band, and baroque trio. He was also an active participant in ensembles run by Warwickshire Music Hub, playing in the county wind orchestra, and in the Waits group, which is where he gained interest in early music and historical performance.

In 2018 he was accepted into the Junior Department of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, studying oboe, piano, and composition, as well as playing in the wind and symphony orchestras. 

Since starting his studies full-time at RBC in 2022 he has played in the Baroque Orchestra, Recorder Consort, and other early music ensembles, with which he has played at events such as LIFEM and Cheltenham Music Festival. At RBC, he studies baroque oboe with Gail Hennessy. In 2024, he studied for a semester with Chris Palameta at the Royal Conservatoire in Brussels. Will has also played in a number of ensembles such as RBC's Symphony and Wind Orchestras on modern oboe, which he studies with Jenni Phillips, Rachael Pankhurst, and George Caird.

Will has been kindly supported by Warwickshire Symphony Orchestra and the Denne Gilkes Memorial Fund, which allowed him to purchase his baroque oboe in 2020.

Photo © James Atkinson