Oboist

Penelope Smith

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(5.0)Read all 8 reviews
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About Penelope

Freelance oboe and cor anglais player, based in London. Royal College of Music graduate with a Masters in Orchestral Performance.
Oboist
London
Verified profile

As a much in demand freelance oboist, Penelope has worked with orchestras throughout the UK and Ireland such as the London Mozart Players, RTE Concert Orchestra, English Festival Orchestra, and Brandenburg Sinfonia. Her concerto performances include J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Oboe d’Amore with the Exeter Symphony Orchestra, Haydn’s Concerto for Oboe with the Orchestra of Situation Opera, Agrell’s Oboe Concerto with the Amadè Players, Marcello’s Concerto for Oboe in D Minor and Holst’s Fugal Concerto with the Astor Palm Court Orchestra. In 2005, Penelope was awarded a full scholarship to Trinity College of Music, where she studied under Josephine Lively and Christopher O’Neal. During her time at Trinity she was invited to record works by Alan Hovhanness for Naxos with the TCM Wind Ensemble, and Haydn’s Nocturnes and Scherzandi for the British Haydn Society. Other recording projects include library music for Imagem Production Music and works for Sony Playstation. A successful audition for the National Youth Orchestra of Wales in 2008 saw Penelope perform in various concert halls in Wales, culminating in a side by side scheme with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. After graduating from Trinity College of Music with a BMus(Hons) degree in performance, Penelope went on to study at the Royal College of Music under the tutelage of David Theodore, Christopher Cowie and Christine Pendrill. She was the recipient of the Evelyn Rothwell Oboe Prize in 2011 and gained her Masters in Orchestral Performance (MPERF) in 2012.

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This act has been working with Encore for over 8 years
5 gigs
Experienced: 5 bookings through Encore
Musicianship
Genres:
Christmas, Classical, Classical crossover, Contemporary classical, Baroque, Early music, Film / TV music, Musical theatre, Opera, Electronic, Ambient, 1920s era music, 1930s era music, 1940s era music, 1950s era music, 1960s era music, 1970s era music, 1980s era music, 1990s era music, Pop, Acoustic, Ambient pop, Covers, Fanfare
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Event types:
Concert, Wedding, Wedding proposal, Funeral / Memorial service, Private event, Corporate event, Charity event, Recording session, Theatre / Show, Cruise, Birthday party, Christmas party, New Year's Eve
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Other skills:
Instrumental teaching
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Penelope
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5 out of 5
6 verified reviews
Satisfaction
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4.8
Professionalism
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5.0
Communication
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5.0
Punctuality
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5.0

Penelope's Reviews

From Encore customers:

GS
George S
1 year ago
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5 out of 5

Beautifully played version of Gabriel's Oboe at my Father's funeral. A sad day but a song he so loved and played so well by Penelope. Our deepest thanks.

PI
Paul T
3 years ago
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5 out of 5

Penny was excellent. She delivered a tricky Bach obligato with impressive fluency and stylish ornamentation. Rehearsal was a pleasure and the actual performance was cool headed and spot on.

CB
Chris B
4 years ago
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4.8 out of 5

Very reliable and professional.

CC
Charlie C
4 years ago
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5 out of 5

Excellent in every respect Charlie

Read all 5 reviews

From other customers:

DZ
Declan Z
5 years ago, for a Recording session in London
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5 out of 5

I was impressed by Penny's skills as a session musician recently when I produced a series of performance videos of her performing a huge variety of challenging solo oboe repertoire. Penny was repeatedly able to achieve seemingly perfect takes with great tone, so clearly has an effective approach to preparing and executing large volumes of material. I look forward to hearing Penny smashing some oboe solos on some more recordings in the near future!

H
Http://www.exetersymphonyorchestra.co.uk/blog/a-review-of-our-spring-concert-on-19th-march-by-nick-horton
8 years ago

She was possessed of a captivating and lovely tone and captured the wonderful lyricism and intimate joy of the ever-evolving lines of the fast, outer movements.

Read all 3 reviews

From other musicians:

18 November 2018

I was impressed by Penny's skills as a session musician recently when I produced a series of performance videos of her performing a huge variety of challenging solo oboe repertoire. Penny was repeatedly able to achieve seemingly perfect takes with great tone, so clearly has an effective approach to preparing and executing large volumes of material. I look forward to hearing Penny smashing some oboe solos on some more recordings in the near future!