About

Having recently completed her MMus at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire with Distinction, Kate Allsop completed her BMus at the same institution under the tuition of Annabel Knight and Chris Orton, graduating with First Class Honours and the BMus Course Prize for highest degree mark. Since beginning her studies in Birmingham she has been awarded three performance and early music scholarships and has been the winner of the Conservatoire Recorder Prize for four consecutive years. Most recently she won the prestigious Town Hall Symphony Hall prize and Corton Hyde Early Music Prize with her Ensemble La Notte trio, and has featured three times on BBC Radio 3, including as part of the BBC Proms, with the same ensemble.  Her performing experience has included many concerts of varied genres and in varied settings, both in the UK and abroad.

In 2016 Kate studied with Daniël Brüggen at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, taking part in several performance projects with students. Friendships with fellow students in The Hague led to her forming a recorder and theorbo duo – in summer 2017 they gave a concert of early German and Austrian repertoire at the Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht fringe. Kate has also been involved in classes and lessons at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.

In August 2016, she was selected as one of a few to study with soloist Maurice Steger at the prestigious Yehudi Menuhin Festival and Baroque Academy in Gstaad, Switzerland, taking part in a week of masterclasses, performance coaching and concerts. Other highlights at the beginning of her career have included performing at the London International Exhibition of Early Music, the Open Recorder Days Amsterdam, and as concerto soloist with the Kidderminster Festival Orchestra.

Kate has benefitted from masterclasses with many international musicians, including Dan Laurin, Piers Adams, Michael Form, Dorothee Oberlinger, and Rachel Brown.

Also a string player from an early age, Kate began specialising in baroque violin and viola at the age of 17. She has received lessons from Aliye Cornish and Kate Fawcett. In the past few years she has performed in side-by-side projects with the London Handel Players and the Instruments of Time and Truth orchestra, and last year was involved in a recording of medieval music for the BBC.