As part of the JCS collaboration with sight-impaired instrumentalists, we are joined by flautist Kate Risdon and pianist Fergus Black in our 2nd April concert at St Gabriel’s Pimlico.

Kate Risdon is a founder member of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s BSO Resound Ensemble, which became the first disabled-led ensemble to perform at the BBC Proms in 2018 and won the Royal Philharmonic Society Impact Award in 2019. She now combines her work with BSO Resound with a portfolio of teaching and performing. She has worked with the British Paraorchestra, including in conjunction with the Qatar Philharmonic and the South Bank Sinfonia. She was guest soloist in Prague with the Czech Virtuosi Orchestra in 2017, at the invitation of the Czech Blind Union. Other less conventional performances include duets in a pod on the London Eye and improvised flute for Aboriginal “smoking” ceremonies with Forrest Yoga.

Kate is a committed teacher, working privately and with Peterborough Music Hub and Peterborough Centre for Young Musicians. Two of her students are sponsored by the Amber Music Trust, who assist visually impaired young people. She is passionate about promoting Braille music literacy.

Kate studied Music at Dartington College of Arts and graduated from the University of Leeds. She gained Dip. (ABRSM) (teaching) and LRSM (performance) qualifications with distinctions in 2011.

Fergus Black was born in Scotland in 1958. After taking his degree at St. Andrews University, Fergus studied music in the USA at the University of Pennsylvania and at UCLA, before returning to the UK to pursue a career in arts management.

He now devotes his time to performing and teaching piano, organ and singing, both privately and in schools. He has worked with a number of musicians in the Peterborough area and beyond – concerts coming up soon include work with the trumpeter Andy Harris in Sheffield, concerts in Peterborough with viola and viola d’amore, and a children’s organ recital for National Organ Day on 18^th April in Stamford.

 Kate and Fergus began their collaboration in 1997 and have since given many recitals in the Peterborough area. They have performed several times for the Treasury Music Society in London as well as playing in locations as diverse as the kitchens of Belvoir Castle and school assembly halls, and entertaining lunchtime customers of Café Nero.

Following a well-received recital of Russian and Georgian music, part of the Peterborough lunchtime concert series, they will be returning in June with flautist Patrick Williams, Kate’s husband and mentor, to perform much-loved French and English repertoire.

In our concert on 2^nd April, they will be playing Sir Malcolm Arnold’s Sonatina for Flute and Piano op.19 (1948) and Jehan Ariste Alain’s Trois Mouvements Pour Flûte Et Piano (1934-1935).