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Arden Consort logo
  
 
 
players
 
 
 
Dave Yates
  
Louise Braithwaite
  
Dave Whatley
Dave Yates is a retired director of an engineering company. Originally inspired to take up saxophone and clarinet after hearing the original Duke Ellington band on tour, he enjoyed an orchestral upbringing and now exercises a passion for early music in all manner of strange ways. Unfortunately, he also shows an unhealthy interest in bicycles and tightly-fitting lycra. Louise Braithwaite wasn't smart enough to teach herself, so had to go to music college, where she didn't study the recorder. She freely admits to having to ask the others how to do trills. She did study the oboe, which she plays professionally, and which has a much easier, mechanically-assisted trill system. Dave Whatley was for many years an aerospace engineer, and is now a woodwind instrument repairer and freelance flautist. He's still looking for the perfect instrument...
 
John Geddes
  
Mike Ashley
  
Sue Peters
John Geddes taught brass instruments and general music for many years at Solihull School. He is chiefly a horn player, but also plays the trombone and sackbut, and has occasionally ventured into other sections of the orchestra. He enjoys arranging as well as playing, and is now therefore trying to learn the computer. Mike Ashley originally took up the guitar, inspired by Lonnie Donegan, until a wonderful Julian Bream recital converted him to the classical guitar and the lute. Mike now plays various lutes and guitars, to suit the music being played, and vows one day to wash the hand that once shook Julian Bream's. Sue Peters plays oboe, recorder and bassoon. When the Arden Consort formed she developed a love for early music. Although she plays in several orchestras, she prefers playing in small groups. Sue has been a bookseller, oboe teacher and is currently a reflexologist. She's the bossy one and sorts out the gigs.
 
 
Jonathan Spencer
  
Other musicians, who have played or sung with the Arden Consort over the years (most recent first)
Heather Holt
Rebecca Hetherington
Jim Rowley
Alison Brierley
Richard Heginbotham
Malcolm Peake
Alastair Moseley
Nigel Short (whilst a chorister at St Alphege Church, Solihull)
Lesley Knowles
Jonathan Spencer works in IT for a construction consultancy. He has sung in one group or another since he joined a church choir in 1967, and currently chairs the Birmingham Bach Choir. He played the violin and recorder for some years, but now concentrates mainly on singing. Like David Yates, he has a worrying tendency to sport brightly-coloured lycra when cycling to work.