Katherine Spencer – Clarinet

Clarinettist Katherine Spencer made her concerto debut at the age of fourteen at the Royal Festival Hall and has since performed there as concerto soloist a further three times. She has also appeared as soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, The Academy of St Martin in the Fields Orchestra at the Barbican Centre and at the Birmingham Symphony Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall, made many live Radio 3 solo broadcasts, and performs regularly on Classic FM and European radio stations.

She has recorded the Brahms Sonata and Beethoven Trio for the Oxford Classic label with Sam Haywood and Martin Storey and many of her discs with the Galliard Ensemble, of which she is a founder member are highly acclaimed in the press and Gramophone magazine.

Katherine is passionate about trying to recreate the actual clarinet sound intended by composers and is thus an active member of the period performance scene in Europe particularly as a member of The Age of Enlightenment Orchestra. She is also a busy freelance modern clarinet player with the major orchestras in Britain.

As a chamber musician Katherine was invited to participate in the BBC Radio 3 Young Generation Artists Scheme. She has also had the honour to perform the Mozart Clarinet Quintet with the remaining members of the Amadeus Quartet in the presence of HRH the Emperor of Japan. She continues to perform internationally with her many chamber ensembles regularly in international Festivals such as the BBC Proms and the Barbican’s “Mostly Mozart Festival”.