Handel and his friends
Music by Telemann, Stanley, Babell and others

Naomi Okuda (recorder) & Mie Hayashi (harpsichord)

Naomi Okuda performs extensively as a solo recitalist and as an ensemble player,  including appearances with orchestras such as Bach Collegium Japan and recordings for NHK and a number of record labels in Japan. She has been the 'Recommendation Artist' of her home city of Osaka and collaborates regularly with the Musical Instrument Museum, Hamamatsu. Since  moving to the UK in 2010 she continues to develop her performing career and teaches actively in both UK and Japan. She teaches the recorder at the Wellington College, has taught the Advanced Baroque Recorder Course at Benslow Music Trust, Morley College and has recently begun regular teaching at the Blackheath Conservatoire, teaching recorder and Baroque Ensemble. www.emclute.com/okuda/

Naomi Okuda Wooderson - recorders

Mie Hayashi was born in Kyoto, Japan, and studied at Kobe College, graduating summa cum laude. In London she studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Laurence Cummings and the late John Toll, and then at the Royal College of Music with Robert Woolley. She was awarded the Lincoln Scholarship (RAM) and Century Fund (RCM). During her studies she also won the Croft Sherry Ensemble Prize with the chamber ensemble Abendmusik, as well as the Ruth Dyson Keyboard Prize and Amadeus Fortepiano Prize.

With the ensemble La Sfera Musicale, she won top prize at the Yamanashi Early Music Competition 2005 and honourable mention at the Bruges International Early Music Competition 2006. With Abendmusik, and her husband, the flautist/recorder player Graham O'Sullivan, she has performed throughout the UK and overseas, including concerts for the Countess of Munster Recital scheme, and recitals for the Cheltenham International Music Festival, the Barcelona Early Music Festival, the National Trust recital series at Fenton House and the Lake District Summer Festival. With La Sfera Musicale she has performed recitals across Europe and in Japan.

As an orchestral musician, Mie has received invitations to perform with the Royal Northern Sinfonia and the London Handel Orchestra.   In Japan, she was for several years principal harpsichordist with the Kyoto Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra with whom she appeared frequently as a concerto soloist. As a duo recitalist and orchestral musician, Mie has shared the concert platform with many renowned musicians, including the harpsichordists Laurence Cummings and Masaaki Suzuki, the cellist Anner Bylsma and the flautists Rachel Brown and Masahiro Arita, giving acclaimed performances and radio broadcasts both in the UK, in continental Europe and the Far East.

Mie Hayashi - harpsichord