The Flautadors are firmly established as one of the UK's leading recorder ensembles. British performances have included major festivals such as York and Lincoln Early Music Festivals, Stratford-on-Avon Festival and Greenwich International Early Music Festival as well as the Fresh series in the Purcell Room. International appearances include the East Cork Early Music Festival and Niasvizh Festival, Belarus where their performance was broadcast live on Russian and Belorussian national television and radio. Their concerts in the UK have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and they have appeared as guest artists on the programme In Tune.

In 2003 the quartet recorded The complete recorder music of Edmund Rubbra and Benjamin Britten (Dutton Digital) to critical acclaim. This disc has become a favourite on Classic FM and their next disc, music by Purcell and Locke with lutenist David Miller, will be available in early 2007 on the Deux-Elles label. Known for their diverse and colourful programmes, The Flautadors' repertoire spans 800 years treating listeners to medieval polyphony through to today's newest works. Their particular interest in Scottish music led to a highly acclaimed tour of Scotland and an early music project focusing on the time of Mary, Queen of Scots.

For the past ten years, The Flautadors have shaped British recorder playing through their research and educational work collaborating with the Wigmore Hall (Chamber Tots), Oundle School, the Centre for Young Musicians in London and the Universities of Hull and Canterbury. The Flautadors are continually expanding the repertoire for recorder quartet by commissioning and promoting new works that challenge the players and extend the technical boundaries of the instrument. The Flautadors series of their own arrangements for recorder quartets is published by Prima la Musica.

Top ^ Catherine Fleming

Catherine Fleming combines work as a teacher of the Alexander Technique with her career as a musician. Catherine studied the Alexander Technique with the late Walter Carrington at the Constructive Teaching Centre in London (the longest established training school in the world) and graduated in July 2005.

In 1995, Catherine graduated from the University of Hull with a BMus Honours degree and was awarded the Andrew Brown Memorial Prize in Music (for the highest performance recital mark). Catherine was then invited to remain in Hull as a specialist recorder tutor for the music department. She continued her music studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Pamela Thorby where she won the 1997 Portallion Chamber Music Prize with guitarist Arngeir Hauksson, and in 1999 the Deutsche Bank (formerly Bankers' Trust) Pyramid Award with her chamber group Concanentes.

Catherine is a founder member of the prize-winning ensemble Concanentes, and has performed in many of the major festivals in Europe including York, Barcelona and Bruges Early Music Festivals. Catherine has given solo recitals and masterclasses all over the UK and performed as a guest soloist for the National Chamber Orchestra of Wales. As well as teaching privately, Catherine is an external examiner for the Welsh College of Music and Drama and Trinity College of Music.

Top ^ Celia Ireland

Celia divides her time between the Flautadors, teaching at Oundle School and for Hertfordshire Music Service, and being Mum to daughter Isla.

She studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (which included a three month study period at the Utrecht School of Arts in The Netherlands) and graduated with a First in 2003. In addition to the Flautadors, Celia s performing experience has been wide-ranging, including appearances at The Isle of Man Early Music Festival, Cheltenham Festival, and featured soloist in the 2005 Jenkins Requiem Tour.

Celia has a keen interest in contemporary music which has led to a number of pieces being written specially for her. She premiered Donald Bousted's 'Two Responses to Silence' (for tenor recorder) in 1998 and has had a double concerto written for her by the same composer. Whilst at Guildhall, she was invited to record the Guildhall audition piece which she also premiered at the Wigmore Hall. David Murphy's LOL for recorder and percussion (dedicated to Celia) was premiered by her in June 2003.

Top ^ Merlin Harrison

Merlin studied with Pamela Thorby and Robert Ehrlich at Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig. After a year of his studies at conservatoire, Merlin took up baroque oboe lessons with Gail Hennessy and is now enjoying his professional life as a "doubling" musician.

Merlin has performed a whole range of repertoire in many prominent venues and festivals across the UK, including the Wigmore Hall, LSO St. Luke's, St. John's Smith Square, St. Martin in the Fields, Dartington International Summer School and the Edinburgh Fringe. He has played for a variety of professional period ensembles, including Cambridge Baroque Camerata, Ludus Baroque and The English Concert. Merlin's activities have taken him abroad on numerous occasions; in 2005 he was invited to play in the Festivalensemble Stuttgart, and in 2006 as a member of the Guildhall Recorder Quartet at the European Recorder Festival in Feldkirch, Austria (where he adjudicated at the solo recorder competition). He has also played concerts in France, Italy and Poland and participated in masterclasses with Philip Pickett, Nikolaj Ronimus, Dan Laurin and most recently Gerd Lünenbürger at the Festiva di Musica Antica in Urbino. You can hear him on disc playing with David Daniels and the English Concert; a recording of Bach arias for counter-tenor (EMI Classics).

Top ^ Ian Wilson

Ian Wilson studied recorders and clarinet at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama where he won the woodwind prize twice (once on each instrument) and gained the Principal's Prize upon graduation. Other prizes include the Skene Award, a LASMO Staffa Music Award and the 2002 Van Wassenaer Competition's Musica Antica Prize for best individual musician. A keen chamber musician, Ian is also a member of the Burney Players and plays with Ensemble L'Aia. Outside classical music, Ian can be heard on the first album by the band Paris Motel and has recently been working with the cult folk singer Vashti Bunyan.

He has performed as a soloist with many of Europe's finest young orchestras including the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, The Irish Baroque Orchestra and the Adderbury Ensemble and has played in many international festivals in Europe including the Auvergne and Innsbruck Early Music Festivals and the Ancient Niasvizh Festival in Belarus. In addition to his performing work, Ian teaches at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Trinity College of Music London, Eton College and the Campion School in Essex. He is in demand as an examiner and adjudicator and in 2005 was one of the judges of the Moeck International Recorder Prize.

"Ian Wilson, a young virtuoso performer on both recorder and clarinet, was the soloist in Vivaldi's Concerto for Sopranino Recorder and in Weber's Concertino for Clarinet in which an amazing fusion of mood made for a performance of unequal brilliance"    The Herald, Aug 2000

A flautador is 'a travelling pipe (or recorder) player'