In this feature we meet recorder player Olwen Foulkes who has played with Oxford Bach Soloists since 2014 and will be performing on 22 October in the next exciting concert: Violin Concerto…
Tell us something about your training and career to date…
I was very fortunate to get a bursary to study at the Junior Department of Trinity Laban when I was 13 and I had a wonderful teacher, Peter Robinson, who introduced me to the world of early music… I think I decided that I wanted to ‘be a musician’ after the first Saturday there! After that, I studied for my Bachelor and Masters degrees at the Royal Academy of Music with Pamela Thorby, and spent a year studying with Dan Laurin in Stockholm.
What other musical ensembles are you involved with?
In terms of chamber music, I give regular duo recitals with a wonderful harpsichordist, Nathaniel Mander. I also founded a flexible chamber ensemble Flauti d’echo with recorder player Tabea Debus. We are looking forward to being on the BREMF Live! scheme this year. One of the lovely things about being a recorder player is that you get to programme most of the recitals that you perform and you can really be creative with the music that you want to play and the stories that you want to tell.
Tell us some of the highlights of your career to date.
This year’s highlight must be recording my first CD ‘Directed by Handel’ on Barn Cottage Records! The music is so close to my heart and I’m excited for the release in a few months…
Other than that, playing Vivaldi C minor concerto in St. John’s Smith Square last year was incredible. It’s such a monumental piece. And the first recital that I gave at Handel House Museum as part of their young artist scheme was really special; I know it’s sentimental, but starting with Handel’s F major recorder sonata in Handel’s music room (which is such an amazingly intimate venue) was very humbling.
Tell us something about Bach’s writing for recorder…
Bach always writes beautiful and challenging recorder parts and they are so often completely integral to the orchestral colour. The parts are almost like a cog in an exquisitely refined clock…you slot into this wonderful ‘whole’ and something magical emerges. He also uses a complete range of recorders for different cantatas and references the elusive ‘Flauti d’echo’ in Brandenburg 4. Some of the cantata obbligato parts for sopranino and sixth flute (a recorder in D) are very demanding and Actus Tragicus has possibly the most otherworldly (yet profoundly human) sinfonia I have ever played.
What do you see as the value of ensembles like Oxford Bach Soloists to the city’s local professionals and to younger aspiring musicians?
I’m not from Oxford, so it has been really great to meet some of the regular OBS singers who are local to the city! Personally, OBS has given me some very inspiring moments… performing Telemann’s Concerto for Recorder and Viola da gamba and Actus Tragicus with Susanne Heinrich and Richard Boothby over the summer was such an honour. I’ve listened to (and loved) their recordings for so long, it would be a lie to say I wasn’t just a little star-struck!
Hear Olwen performing with Oxford Bach Soloists on 22 October at New College Chapel in a dazzling concert of music by JS Bach in Violin Concerto.
