Ruby Howells – Flute
Ruby is studying for her Master of Arts at the Royal Academy of Music in London on a scholarship. She recently graduated Bachelor of Music at RAM with first-class honours, and was awarded the Irene Burcher Prize for the highest undergraduate woodwind final recital mark; she is quickly establishing herself as a versatile soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player.
Ruby has performed with both the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, the Kensington Symphony Orchestra, and the contemporary-focused Riot Ensemble. During her studies, Ruby has additionally had the opportunity to work with established conductors on many occasions in the RAM Symphony Orchestra as both Principal Flute and Principal Piccolo. She enjoys performing regularly with her two chamber groups, Duo Tânwen (flute & harp) and Silver Pipework (flute & organ), and in her ensembles has notably performed for HM The Queen and HRH The Princess Royal. Duo Tânwen has performed several concerts at the Ely Arts Festival.
Ruby has achieved success in several competitions and was the Over-19s Woodwind Winner at the National Eisteddfod of Wales in 2023, and previously was the British Flute Society’s Young Performer in 2018. She is highly passionate about music education; in 2024 she travelled to Greece to work with children in refugee and migrant camps as part of the Wind-Up Penguin Theatre Company, and has also returned to the National Youth Orchestra as an assistant tutor after spending three years as a member in her teenage years.
Ruby is enormously grateful to her professors, Katherine Baker & Karen Jones, for all of their musical advice, and to the Charlotte Fraser Foundation and Help Musicians for their ongoing support towards her postgraduate studies.
Richard Shaw – piano
Richard has given many broadcasts for Britain’s BBC Radio 3 include duo performances with violinists such as James Ehnes, Viviane Hagner, Leonidas Kavakos, So-Ock Kim, Pekka Kuusisto, Vadim Repin, Ittai Shapira and Nikolaj Znaider, cellists Matthew Barley, Narek Hakhnazaryan, Richard Harwood and Li Wei, Jean Ferrandis (flute), Nicholas Daniel (oboe), Martin Fröst (clarinet) and Singers Nicole Cabelle, Jennifer Smith, Ailish Tynan, Alice Coote, Ruby Philogene, Jean Rigby, Anna Larsson, Robin Blaze, Michael Chance, Paul Agnew, Hal Cazalet, Kurt Streit, Matthew Rose, Jonathan Veira and Robert Pomokov. He has performed with an entire alphabet of international flautists, including András Adorján, Robert Aitken, Pierre-Yves Artaud, Jeanne Baxtresser, Christine Beard, Sharon Bezaly, Sebastian Bell, William Bennett, Denis Bouriakov, Sarah Brooke, Rachel Brown, Wissam Boustany and on to Adam Walker, Elizabeth Walker, Emma Williams, Trevor Wye, Matthias Ziegler and Jacques Zoon.
