Pamela Thorby

Pamela Thorby

Over the last few years Pamela has quietly established herself as one of the world's leading recorder players. Her stylish virtuosity can be heard on numerous recordings of music ranging from the medieval period to the present day.

Pamela's Baroque Recorder Concertos disc (Linn CKD 217) received outstanding reviews - "a world-class performer" (Gramophone) - and was a Gramophone Editor's Choice. Her recording of Handel Recorder Sonatas with Richard Egarr (Linn CKD 223) - "set to become a benchmark" (The Independent) - was BBC Music Magazine ‘Chamber Music Disc of the Month'.

Pamela has appeared as concerto soloist and chamber musician with the Palladian Ensemble, English Concert, Sonnerie, New London Consort and many other eminent period and modern instrument ensembles and orchestras. She has toured extensively in major venues throughout the UK, Europe, USA, South America and the Middle and Far East. She has also featured on many film soundtracks and recordings for radio and television and has been interviewed and featured on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, Radio 3's In Tune, CD Review and the Early Music Show. "Pamela Thorby's relaxed virtuosity disguises the immense difficulty of playing the humble recorder this well" (BBC Radio 3 CD Review).

Pamela was proud to be a member of the acclaimed Palladian Ensemble between 1991 and 2007. During that time the group achieved international success with over a thousand concert performances around the world and ten acclaimed albums with Linn Records.

As well as her ‘classical' playing, Pamela's ability to assimilate many styles of music and her skills as an improviser have led her to work with groups such as the jazz quartet, Perfect Houseplants; she guests on their album ‘New Folk Songs' (Linn AKD 130). Pamela is also a featured soloist on all of Karl Jenkins' million-selling ‘Adiemus' albums and on ‘Imagined Oceans', which was written especially for her. She also appears on Dame Kiri te Kanawa's EMI release ‘Kiri sings Karl'. Her appearances on these albums make her possibly the most listened to recorder player in the world.

Pamela began her career as a prize-winning student at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD) in London and then received a prestigious DAAD scholarship to study at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. Within a few years of graduating she returned to the GSMD to teach the recorder as a principal instrument and is currently a visiting professor.