Clarinet and Saxophone

Bethany studied clarinet with Nicholas Cox, Chris Swann and Raphael Schenkel at the Royal Northern College of Music where she graduated with Distinction. From there she became a NEXT Musician with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, performing in concerts at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Symphony Hall, the CBSO centre. The scheme included composition workshops with Emily Howard and Michael Zev Gordon, leading to Bethany giving the concert premiere of Zev Gordon’s Three Short Pieces for Clarinet in April 2022. Bethany performs regularly on both clarinets and saxophones in a variety of settings. As an orchestral musician Bethany has performed with, amongst others, the Hallé, NEW Sinfonia, London Concert Orchestra, Manchester Concert Orchestra, Brigantes, and Northern Film Orchestra. She also enjoys musical theatre work, playing on the acclaimed run of Oliver! at Leeds Playhouse and Spend, Spend, Spend! at Manchester Royal Exchange.
Bethany is a keen chamber musician, having performed Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps at the Edinburgh Festival and Nielsen’s Wind Quintet at Buxton International Festival. In summer 2025 she performed as a chamber musician at the Walton Foundation in Ischia, Italy. Bethany is the clarinettist and one of the founding members of wind quintet Northerly Winds. As a soloist, Bethany has recently played the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with Leeds Haydn Players conducted by Melvin Tay, and Weber Clarinet Concerto in F Minor with Hive Sinfonia conducted by Benjamin Draper. Bethany enjoys teaching and is a Chamber tutor at Chetham’s School of Music, where she leads the clarinet choir, tutors wind chamber music, and often takes sectional rehearsals. She has been a clarinet tutor for the summer schools at both Wells Cathedral School and Chetham’s School of Music, and a woodwind tutor for City of Sheffield Youth Orchestra. Bethany teaches clarinet and saxophone at Sale Grammar School and Sheffield Music Academy.