Alan Pendlebury - Bassoon
Alan Pendlebury is Section Leader Bassoon for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and joined the Orchestra in 1984.
Q. When did you join the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra?
A. August 1984
Q. What was your earliest musical experience?
A. Listening to March of the Tin Soldiers on my parent's 78 gramophone - I was about 5years old at the time.
Q. If you could play a different instrument, which one would it be?
A. The Cors Anglais - a truly wonderful instrument - it can tell a story in music in a very special way.
Q. What would you most like to do if you weren’t a musician?
A. Be in charge of a walled kitchen garden - all those varieties of fruit and all in their proper seasons - nothing imported.
Q. What’s on your record/CD/MP3 Player/Spotify Playlist right now?
A. I am so old I don't have an MP3 and virtually never listen to CD's --but I make up for it with copious amounts of BBC Radio 7.
Q. What is your favourite Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra recording?
A. Suk - Summers Tale - conducted by Libor Pesek - a magical recording of a neglected masterpiece.
Q. What is your most memorable moment with the Orchestra so far?
A. Very difficult question - but I think it would have to be opening the Prague Spring Festival in 1993.
Q. What do you like to do with your free time outside music?
A. I enjoy attemting cryptic crosswords / studying and failing to find winners in the various race meetings / growing fruit and reading crime fiction of the 1920's -1950's.
Q. What do you like most about Liverpool?
A. It has a vibrancy and a difference - not prepared to conform to a set pattern of how a city ought to be - a welcome change at a time of international conformity.
