ISABEL KNOWLAND (violin and Chair of OCM) is a well-known Oxford musician who has performed with many of England’s finest orchestras, such as the Royal Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic, the Northern Sinfonia, the City of London Sinfonia and the Orchestra of St. John’s Smith Square. As a recitalist she has recorded several programmes for the BBC, and as a soloist has performed many concertos in the Oxford area. She is principal violin in the Oxford Concert Party with whom she has appeared at major festivals and venues throughout the UK and Europe, recorded for the Carlton Classics label, and performed on most of the major Radio and TV in the UK, Ireland and Italy. She teaches in Oxford and was instrumental in helping to form the Oxfordshire Youth Chamber Orchestra. Her community work has included many projects for people with special needs and in prisons. She is a founder member of the Oxford Company of Musicians.

ARNE RICHARDS is a composer, performer and music therapist. He studied harpsichord and composition at Dartington College of Arts, The Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Following his highly acclaimed concert debut at London’s Wigmore Hall in 1977, he has developed a colourful and varied performing profile in many parts of the world. He has recorded regularly for BBC radio and TV, Channel 4 TV, and has appeared on Italian, German, Mexican, Australian and US networks. As a qualified music therapist and a noted authority on music for healing, Arne Richards has directed training courses for education and health authorities throughout the British Isles as well as for Dartington College of Arts, Oxford Brookes University, Queensland University and Cumberland College in Australia and Arhus Academy of Music in Denmark. He has run numerous projects for the elderly, people with special needs, children and prisoners throughout Oxfordshire. Arne’s work as a composer has included extensive commissions for dance and theatre, chamber and choral works, numerous compositions and arrangements for his own group, The Oxford Concert Party and film scores for Channel 4 TV.

ANNA EVANS (oboe and cor anglais). Anna studied the oboe at the Royal College of Music and in Munich. She has combined raising a family with a busy free-lance career as an oboe and cor-anglais player and with teaching both in Oxfordshire and Leicestershire. She is a regular member of free-lance orchestras such as the English Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra da Camera, and the Oxford Company of Musicians, which takes her from the West Midlands down to the South West and as far north as Glasgow. Foreign tours have included work with the ESO under the direction of Lord Menuhin. Amongst the many recordings made with the ESO, Anna has featured as a solo oboe player in a recording of Telemann concerti with the trumpet player, John Wallace. With the English Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra da Camera and the Oxford Company of Musicians Anna has participated in educational workshops in primary and secondary schools and in holiday activities projects.

JULIA RAYSON (clarinet) was born in Oxford. She studied in London, New York, Rome and Detmold, and in 1965 became principal clarinet in the Opera in Gelsenkirchen, thus being the first woman in Germany to hold a principal wind post which she held for twelve years. She was also a member of the Dusseldorfer Wind Sextet and the Deutschekammerakademie. She has played and recorded with the Melos Quartet of Stuttgart over many years, recording Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet with them in 1971. On returning to England in 1977 she formed a duo with Allan Schiller and in 1988 they formed Quintus, a piano and wind ensemble. They have recorded the main repertoire for the BBC and commissioned a new work by John Woolrich. She now plays with several chamber ensembles around the country. She is a founder member of the Oxford Company of Musicians.

JACQUELINE JOHNSON (cello) graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, Australia. During her studies there she took part in masterclasses with cellists Rohan de Sarem, Anner Bylsmer and Paul Tortelier. She was a member of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, played with the Australian Opera and Ballet companies and broadcast recitals for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Her involvement in chamber music led her to give many solo and chamber recitals throughout Australia, and also in China and Hong Kong; she has made several recordings and CDs in this capacity. Now based in Oxford Jacqueline works free-lance, combining chamber music and solo performances with orchestral work and teaching. She is a founder member of the Oxford Company of Musicians.

ALISON STREET is a freelance music early years specialist living and working in Oxford. Since 1995 she has worked in the PEEP Project, which supports parents as their children’s first educators, being responsible for producing all audio materials and musical resources which can help language development and early learning in babies and children up to five years old. In Canada she studied at the University of Western Ontario, comparing the different philosophies of Kodaly, Jacques-Dalcrose, Suzuki and Carl Orff in relation to pre-school music education. She ran classes in pre-school music for parents and children for 10 years in the Community Education programme in Kidlington. She is a professional oboe player.

ELISABETH REED received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Georgia, USA where she performed in master classes for Dorothy Delay and Franco Gulli. She has played with English Touring Opera, the New Hampshire Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, the National Orchestra of Wales, Het Gelders Orkest, the Santa Rosa Symphony, the San Antonio Symphony and the Royal Shakespeare Company as well as The Oxford Philomusica and the Oxford Company of Musicians. Recently she played in film recordings at Skywalker Ranch and Fantasy Film Studios in California. She created her own series of concerts for young people, which has been performed many times in Oxfordshire schools as well as in the Newbury Spring Festival.

JULIAN FAULTLESS studied the horn at the Royal Academy of Music and the University of California, Los Angeles (where he also studied ethnomusicology). Since then he has pursued a varied freelance career including, currently, playing first horn with the Mozart Festival Orchestra. He has also recently played as guest principal with the Britten Sinfonia. He is particularly interested in contemporary music, has toured with the leading German group, Ensemble Modern and has attended Stockhausen's summer course near Cologne for the last two years. While studying for a doctorate in Arabic at Oxford University, he conducted a number of ensembles, including the University Sinfonietta, whom he directed for two years in repertoire ranging from Bach to Boulez and with whom he gave the premiere of Robert Sherlaw Johnson's 'Northumbrian Symphony'.