Marieke Blankestijn, Violin

Born in the Netherlands, Marieke studied with Herman Krebbers and SandorVegh. She is a founder member of Chamber Orchestra of Europe and has been their leader since 1985. With them she has also appeared as a soloist working with conductors including Claudio Abbado, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Bernard Haitink

With the Chamber Orchestra of Europe she has recorded and directed all the Brandenburg Concertos and made her own recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons’. She has recorded the Haydn ‘Sinfonia Concertante’ with Stephen Isserlis and the Bach ‘Oboe and Violin Concerto’ with Douglas Boyd.

In 2012 Marieke was appointed Leader of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and now commutes between Rotterdam and Dorset.

Saskia Otto, Violin

Saskia was born in Amsterdam and started playing the violin at the age of 5. She studied in London, New York and Amsterdam where she completed her Masters Studies with Vera Beths. During her masters she participated in the Academy of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Since August 2018 Saskia holds the position of secondassistant concertmaster with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Saskia has been a regular guest leader of second violins as well as assistant concertmaster with the London Symphony Orchestra and regularly plays with Amsterdam Sinfonietta.

Next to her life as an orchestral player Saskia loves to play as much chamber music as she can. She has performed chamber music at The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Rideau Hall in Ottawa, Delft Chamber Music Festival, Trieste Chamber Music Festival in Italy and Bayreuth Kreuth Musikfest in Germany.

Douglas Paterson, Viola

Douglas was a member of the Schubert Ensemble from 1990 to 2018, with whom he has performed and broadcast in North, South and Central America, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and many parts of Eastern and Western Europe. The ensemble has recorded much of the repertoire for piano quartet and piano quintet, commissioned some fifty works for piano and strings, and was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society prize for best chamber ensemble.

Douglas was previously principal viola with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the London Chamber Orchestra, also playing with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the English Chamber Orchestra. He was a member of the London Conchord Ensemble, and has played as a guest with a number of other chamber ensembles including performances with Alfred Brendel, Paul Tortelier, Gidon Kremer, Imogen Cooper and Stephen Kovacevich.

Douglas studied Social and Political Theory at Gonville and Caius College Cambridge, Geography at UCL and Agriculture at Reading University, whilst studying the viola with Margaret Major and Peter Schidlof and playing in the European Community Youth Orchestra. He now combines his chamber music career with running the family dairy and arable farms in Hampshire and Pembrokeshire.

Richard Hosford, Clarinet

Richard was born and brought up on a farm near Melcombe Bingham in Dorset. After studying with Patrick Shelley, of Dorset Opera fame, he went to the Royal College of Music in London. He was a founder member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and met many of the Gaudier Ensemble there in the early 1980s. He has since been Principal Clarinet of the London Philharmonic and now the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In chamber music, he divides his time between the Gaudier and the Nash Ensembles. He has performed concertos with many orchestras, recently broadcasting the Copland Concerto with the BBCSO. His recordings of the Copland Concerto, the Brahms Quintet and the Brahms Trio have all been First Choices on the BBC’s Record Review programme in recent years. He has a large class of clarinet students at the Royal College of Music, who now visit Dorset annually for a clarinet course and concert at Ashton Farm. Richard was recently made a Fellow of the RCM.

Jane Atkins

Jane Atkins started playing the violin after requesting one for her fourth birthday and two years later she gained a scholarship to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School. In 1986, she won a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama to study with David Takeno where she won many prizes and awards including the first Royal Over-Seas League Bernard Shore Scholarship. Jane made her Royal Festival Hall debut as winner of the LPO/Pioneer Young Soloist of the Year Competition in 1988. She has since appeared as a soloist throughout the UK and Europe performing with many orchestras, notably the Chamber Orchestra of Europe; the English and Scottish Chamber Orchestras: the Dutch and Danish Radio Orchestras and both the City of London and Northern Sinfonias. As a recitalist she has performed in major British festivals including Newbury, Harrogate, Cheltenham and Spitalfield.

In 1992, Jane performed at the Purcell Room for the Park Lane Group’s Young Artists Series and was the soloist for the only recital sponsored by the English Chamber Orchestra. She was ‘appointed principal viola to the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in August 1996. Four years later, Jane embarked on a freelance career and made frequent appearances with the Adderbury Ensemble. In 2008, she was appointed principal viola of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and began teaching at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Since her move to Scotland, Jane has joined Alexander Janiczek to perform the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante and has also performed with pianist Llyr Williams in both the Edinburgh International and Perth Festivals.

Jane is committed to expanding the viola repertoire and has commissioned and performed many new works by Diana Burrell, Ib Norholm, John Woolrich and Andrew Toovey. Her contemporary recordings include Woolrich’s Ulyssees Awakes, Burrell’s Concerto and Tavenor’s Out of the Night for viola and tenor. Other recordings include the Telemann and the newly reconstrusted Bach concertos, both recorded with the Adderbury Ensemble, and Rothko Chapel by Morton Feldman with James Wood and the New London Chamber Choir.

Sally Pendelbury

Sally Pendlebury grew up in Manchester and attended Chetham’s School of Music. At the age of fourteen she became the youngest founding member of the European Community Youth Orchestra and was its principal cellist for three years.

Sally studied at the Guildhall School of Music, and during that time she won the Capital Radio Prize and was a Shell/LSO competition prizewinner. She also won scholarships to study in Dusseldorf and Boston.

A member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Sally has performed and recorded with many of the great soloists and conductors of today. She was also a founder member of the Vellinger String Quartet which won the 1994 London International String Quartet Competition, and toured regularly throughout Europe, Japan and the USA. The quartet performed at many festivals including those in Edinburgh, Mondsee and the Klangboden in Vienna, as well as the Mostly Mozart Festival at the Lincoln Centre.

Sally is regularly invited to perform in festivals internationally and this year will participate in chamber music series in New York, San Francisco, Nurnberg and Graz. Sally often appears as guest principal cello with many British orchestras such as English Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Philharmonia, and she is currently principal cellist with Opera North.

The Hyde Clarinet Quartet

Formed in 2020, The Hyde Clarinet Quartet is a dynamic ensemble comprising current RCM students and alumni. In 2025-26, they achieved recognition by winning the Tunnel Trust Award, alongside several other esteemed chamber ensembles. The quartet also participated in the Royal Overseas League Mixed Ensemble Final, the Royal College of Music Wind and Brass Festival, and won the Royal College of Music Ensemble Competition 2024.

The Hyde Clarinet Quartet actively engages with the RCM community, performing at both internal events, such as open days and concerts, and external venues, including St Mary Abbots Church and the Dangoor Plaza as part of the Great Exhibition Road Festival. They have had the privilege of receiving mentorship from renowned clarinetists Richard Hosford, Timothy Lines, and Peter Sparks, as well as highly accomplished musicians Simon Channing and Wouter Verschuren.

The quartet is committed to expanding the repertoire of the clarinet through a diverse range of string quartet and choral compositions. They have recently premiered two commissioned works, which they eagerly anticipate incorporating into the growing body of clarinet quartet repertoire.

Additionally, The Hyde Clarinet Quartet collaborated with composer Jack Ledger-Dowse, whose piece ‘The Spring’ contributed to their success in winning the June Emerson Music Launchpad Prize 2022.

The quartet has previously made a name for itself at prestigious venues, including The Crypt in St John’s Smith Square and the Royal Albert Hall Elgar Rooms. In 2023, the quartet was honored with the Boconnoc Award presented by the Royal College of Music. As part of their chamber residency, they performed a concert series at the Boconnoc House Estate and its surrounding area.

The quartet expresses its gratitude for the opportunity to engage with children in primary schools throughout the southern region of England through the Deal Music and Arts outreach program. They are committed to inspiring young musicians to actively participate and appreciate a diverse range of musical genres.