Hannah Gillingham is a freelance flautist based in London and Oxford, regularly performing solo, chamber and orchestral works. Recent concerts include playing the Reinecke Flute Concerto with both the Oxford Studio Orchestra and The Angel Orchestra and performing for The Bank of China and British Airways.

 

Hannah enjoys working on a wide variety of music, including performing with the London Sinfonietta Academy as well as becoming a 2022/2023 Britten Pears Young Artist and premiering 6 new works for large ensemble in the Aldeburgh Festival last June. She loves exploring new works with contemporary ensemble ‘Mad Song’, and has performed and recorded many modern solo flute pieces - most notably Roberto Gerhard’s ‘Capriccio for Solo Flute’ which was recorded as part of the Royal College of Music’s recent ‘Music and Migration’ exhibition at the college museum.

 

Other recent projects include playing principal flute with members of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in RCM’s side-by-side concert of Beethoven 6, playing with the English National Opera as part of their ENO Evolve scheme, and as a Young Apprentice with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra.

 

Hannah recently graduated from the RCM with a Distinction in her Master of Performance degree after studying flute with Sue Thomas, Gitte Marcusson, Simon Channing and Emer McDonough and piccolo with Stewart McIlwham, generously supported by the Dasha Shenkman Scholarship. She also completed her undergraduate studies at the RCM and was awarded a First Class Honours degree, alongside the 2020 Flute Prize in the annual Woodwind Competition. 

She is grateful to have had masterclasses with Emmanuel Pahud, Sam Coles, Kate Hill, Robert Winn, Juliette Bausor and Adam Walker

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Hannah began learning the flute at the age of 7 in Oxford, first with Caroline Hobbs-Smith, and then Robert Manasse. Orchestral playing has always been at the heart of her music-making and she played in the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain for four years and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain for two years. With the latter, she has toured in France and played under conductors including Nicholas Collon, Kristjan Järvi, Thomas Adès and John Wilson, playing in concert venues such as the Barbican, the Royal Festival Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester and Symphony Hall, Birmingham.  Highlights with the NYO included two BBC Prom concerts and a recording for Chandos of Holst’s ‘The Planets’ with Edward Gardner. Hannah has also twice been awarded a place as a Young Apprentice with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra. 

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As a soloist, Hannah has on five occasions been the recipient of the Leon Goossens Cup for the highest overall woodwind mark in the Oxford Music Festival, and has twice won the Open Concerto Class. In 2015 she won the Burford Orchestra’s Concerto Competition and was a semi-finalist in the Oxford Philharmonic’s Youth Concerto Competition. She was then a finalist in this competition in 2017, playing Reinecke’s ‘Ballade’ in the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford under Marios Papadopoulos. Hannah has also played solos in many recitals in and around Oxford, including the Holywell Music Room, St. Anne’s College, the Sheldonian Theatre as part of The Young Artists’ Platform award and Dorchester Abbey. 

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Hannah enjoys playing the flute in a wide range of musical genres and a two year period as a Leverhulme Scholar at Aldeburgh Young Musicians (2013-2015) enabled her to work closely with world music groups such as Lokkhi Tera at the Snape Proms, LedBib at the London Jazz Festival and with Anita Lasker-Wallfisch and Simon Wallfisch for a televised performance at the National Holocaust Day 70th Anniversary Remembrance Service.  

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Hannah is also passionate about fostering a love of music in young people. She has tutored young instrumentalists and conducted ensembles at both primary and secondary level, done music education workshops with both toddlers and those in care homes and was a 2022 Instrumental and Teaching ambassador with the Benedetti Foundation.