Melinda Maxwell

Melinda Maxwell read music at the University of York and studied in Germany with Ingo Goritzki and Helmut Winschermann. She has performed as oboe soloist at many national and international festivals and is frequently heard on BBC Radio 3. Many works have been written for Melinda including by Simon Bainbridge, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Philip Cashian, Anthony Gilbert, Simon Holt, Jo Kondo, Nicholas Maw and Howard Skempton. Melinda is also an accomplished composer herself writing several works for oboe and also various ensemble pieces with strings. Her septet Fractures was commissioned and performed by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group in 2015 conducted by Oliver Knussen.

She has made many recordings. Her solo CD Melinda Maxwell in Manchester: Music for Oboe from the RNCM released in 2007 for Dutton Recordings was CD of the Month for BBC Music Magazine. Another in 2009 features the first recording for Oboe Classics of Birtwistle’s 26 Orpheus Elegies and was awarded the top rating in the Guardian and BBC Music Magazine. Her latest CD Blue Bamboo: jazz and other improvisations was released with Oboe Classics in January 2017.

In addition to her work as a chamber musician and recitalist, Melinda is Principal oboe of the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and the Endymion Ensemble. She has played as frequent guest Principal with many orchestras and ensembles; including and continuing with the London Sinfonietta with whom she has worked for the last thirty-five years, and over the years has played with major orchestras as sub-Principal. She has been in regular demand in the session TV/Film world and was featured in all the Inspector Morse series for TV.  

She has taught as oboe tutor at the Royal Academy of Music (1995-2001) and Trinity College in London. She was RNCM Head of Woodwind (2001-2003) and RNCM Consultant in Woodwind Studies (2003-2018). She also coaches at the Britten–Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies and is Oboe Tutor for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. 

In June 2013 she gained an MMus in Jazz Performance from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. In September 2017 she began a PhD in Composition, Improvisation and Performance.
 

Biography

Melinda Maxwell read music at the University of York and studied in Germany with Ingo Goritzki and Helmut Winschermann. She has performed as oboe soloist at many national and international festivals and is frequently heard on BBC Radio 3. Many works have been written for Melinda including by Simon Bainbridge, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Philip Cashian, Anthony Gilbert, Simon Holt, Jo Kondo, Nicholas Maw and Howard Skempton. Melinda is also an accomplished composer herself writing several works for oboe and also various ensemble pieces with strings. Her septet Fractures was commissioned and performed by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group in 2015 conducted by Oliver Knussen.

She has made many recordings. Her solo CD Melinda Maxwell in Manchester: Music for Oboe from the RNCM released in 2007 for Dutton Recordings was CD of the Month for BBC Music Magazine. Another in 2009 features the first recording for Oboe Classics of Birtwistle’s 26 Orpheus Elegies and was awarded the top rating in the Guardian and BBC Music Magazine. Her latest CD Blue Bamboo: jazz and other improvisations was released with Oboe Classics in January 2017.

In addition to her work as a chamber musician and recitalist, Melinda is Principal oboe of the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and the Endymion Ensemble. She has played as frequent guest Principal with many orchestras and ensembles; including and continuing with the London Sinfonietta with whom she has worked for the last thirty-five years, and over the years has played with major orchestras as sub-Principal. She has been in regular demand in the session TV/Film world and was featured in all the Inspector Morse series for TV.  

She has taught as oboe tutor at the Royal Academy of Music (1995-2001) and Trinity College in London. She was RNCM Head of Woodwind (2001-2003) and RNCM Consultant in Woodwind Studies (2003-2018). She also coaches at the Britten–Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies and is Oboe Tutor for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. 

In June 2013 she gained an MMus in Jazz Performance from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. In September 2017 she began a PhD in Composition, Improvisation and Performance.
 

Recordings by this composer

Recordings
Janus

Melinda Maxwell: Janus

Birmingham Record Company

Melinda Maxwell is a composer and oboist who creates “fascinatingly complex” music (Artsdesk) that blends improvisation and composition into a unique musical language. In Janus Maxwell plays the aulos, or double pipe; probably the first known oboe in the world and the most popular wind instrument of the Ancient Greek and Roman civilisations.

More info

Compilations with this composer

Compilations
Melinda Maxwell: Birtwistle - Maxwell - Holt

Melinda Maxwell: Birtwistle - Maxwell - Holt

NMC Recordings

Buy
Sound Census CD Cover

Endymion: Sound Census

NMC Recordings

Buy
In These Exceptional Times

In These Exceptional Times

NMC Recordings

Highlights of the more than 200 tracks submitted as part of NMC's Big Lockdown Music Survey

Find out more

External Links

Music Map

Discover more about the classical music of today with NMC's Music Map, and exciting and educational online tool which enables you to see and hear the connections between composers, their teachers, pupils, influences and their works.

Music Map