List of recorder players

A recorder player is a musician who plays the recorder, a flute-like woodwind musical instrument. The recorder is often used in teaching the rudiments of music, as it is cheap to buy and relatively easy to play at a certain level of accomplishment (although its mastery is as demanding as that of any other instrument). Because of this widespread use of the recorder, the list of people who can play it is enormous.

This article lists three categories of people: first, those who are notable recorder players and are widely recognised as performers on the instrument; second, those who are not famous as recorder players but who have used the instrument as a notable feature of their work; and, third, people who are famous for some other reason but are known to be recreational players of the recorder.

List of notable recorder players

• Maurice Steger considered one the greatest recorder players, he's a recorder virtuoso and conductor. He recorded some Vivaldi concertos with the baroque orchestra, Europa Galante, working alongside the also well known violinist and violist Fabio Biondi
• Mark Oliver (Winner, Grammy Award for best Recorder album of 2008)
• Andrew McKee (of the Brobdingnagian Bards)
• Aldo Abreu
• Piers Adams
• Mark Atwood
• Tom Beets
• Rachel Begley
• Erik Bosgraaf
• Daniël Brüggen
• Frans Brüggen
• Laura Cannell
• Michael Copley
• Juliana Day
• Karla Dias
• Patrick Denecker
• Carl Dolmetsch
• Robert Ehrlich
• Brian Gulland (of Gryphon)
• Richard Harvey (of Gryphon originally)
• Walter van Hauwe
• Peter van Heygen
• Peter Holtslag, Hon ARAM
• Erich Katz
• Jill Kemp
• Sophie Kushkuley
• Hans Maria Kneihs
• Bernard Krainis
• Genevieve Lacey
• Dan Laurin
• Paul Leenhouts
• Justine Levesanos
• Hans-Martin Linde
• Sarah Martin (of Belle & Sebastian)
• Matthias Maute
• Sebastien Marq
• Pedro Memelsdorff
• Lucia Mense
• David Munrow
• Mani Neumann
• Dorothee Oberlinger
• Michala Petri
• Philip Pickett
• Welvin Potter
• Barnaby Ralph
• Roy Sansom
• Ashley Solomon
• Manuel Staropoli
• Sufjan Stevens
• Dominik Strycharski
• Pamela Thorby
• Linda Turbett
• Marion Verbruggen

Other musicians who have made notable use of the recorder

• Terry Kirkman of the Association frequently played recorder on Windy, Along Comes Mary, etc.
• Jimi Hendrix played soprano recorder in some of his studio recordings
• Bob Homme used the recorder as part of his children's TV show, The Friendly Giant
• Rahsaan Roland Kirk featured the recorder on several of his recordings.
• Keith Jarrett played recorder on his album The Survivors' Suite
• Billy Joel played the recorder on Cold Spring Harbor.
• Brian Jones (Rolling Stones) notably played the recorder in the song Ruby Tuesday
• John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) played several recorders in the studio recording of Stairway to Heaven
• Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane played the recorder on the albums Surrealistic Pillow (most notably in "Comin' Back to Me" and "How Do You Feel"), After Bathing at Baxter's and Volunteers.
• Paul McCartney (The Beatles) occasionally uses the recorder in his music (e.g. The Fool on the Hill)
• Bon Scott played recorder during his pre-AC/DC career in the band Fraternity
• Bruce Springsteen plays recorder on some of his tracks
• Dido studied recorder at the London Guildhall school of music and most famously plays it on the track Thank You from her debut album No Angel
• Mick Ronson, glam-rock guitarist, producer and arranger played multi-tracked recorders on David Bowie's "Life on Mars?" and on Lou Reed's "Satellite of Love"
• Gary Brooker and Matthew Fisher of Procol Harum played the recorder on the track "Boredom" on their third album, "A Salty Dog".
• Roy Wood from The Move would play recorder frequently on The Move's albums.
• Steve Page of the Barenaked Ladies played the recorder on "Helicopters" on their album "Maroon (album)".
• Emma Christian, native Manx Gaelic singer and folk artist plays the recorder in place of the more traditional tin whistle.
• Jowan Merckx plays many recorders and also whistles in folkgroup Amorroma.
• Jason John Anderson noted for composing the theme song for the television show The Golden Girls on the recorder.

Notable people who also play the recorder

• Taylor Duncan
• James Dean apparently learnt to play Bach on the recorder
• Patrick Troughton, who often played while in character as the Second Doctor in Doctor Who
• Umberto Eco, Italian novelist, author of The Name of the Rose
• George Bernard Shaw
• Richard Stallman
• Sarah Vowell
• Rainn Wilson who also plays the recorder while in character as Dwight Schrute in The Office
• Rasmus Fleischer
• Bonnie Wright
• Hilary de Pres
• Abe Monsborough
• Benjamin Britten, English composer
• Peter Pears, English tenor
• Bob Hope, American comedian
• Yehudi Menuhin, violinist
• Imogen Holst, English music educator
• Charles Darwin's grandson
• Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, character in Shakespeare's play of the same name
• Georg Philip Telemann, German composer
• Paul McCartney, Beatle, taught by mother of Jane Asher (famous cook, actress etc.)
• Brian Jones, Rolling Stone
• Bruce Springsteen, popular singer
• Eddie Marshall, US jazz drummer/recorder player
• Johann Matheson, German composer & music critic
• Arnold Dolmetsch, instrument maker, scholar & musician
• Howard Mayer-Brown, American musicologist
• Robert De Niro, in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein -- although his back is to the camera while playing, after he turns around he can be seen to have what looks like a Moeck "Flauto Leggero" alto in his hand.
• Robert Donington, English musicologist
• Margaret Donington, sister of the above
• John Manifold, Australian poet & scholar
• Rodney Hall, Australian novelist
• Arthur Waley, English poet and translator who rendered major Japanese literary classics into English.
• Friedrich Gulda, pianist/composer
• King Henry IV
• Samuel Pepys
• Henry Purcell
• Laurie Lee (see Mortimer: Clinging to the Wreckage)

External links

• A large list of links for recorder players