Rachel is an active recitalist and freelance flautist with orchestras, wind ensembles and chamber music groups. Rachel has worked with pianist Jemima Palfreyman since 2013, giving frequent recitals around the country. We are always interested in new locations and concert series - please get in touch if you would like us to come and play for you! Rachel and Jemima also provide music education and outreach activities, including school workshops and music in healthcare settings. These activities include music in hospitals.
A selection of recital programmes and locations is provided below. Please see Rachel's biography for more details about orchestral and ensemble activities.
John Rutter: Angels' Carol
Recorded and edited during the Covid lockdown, December 2020. I was in charge of media for the Lancashire Artillery Band from 2020 until 2023. I spent much of 2020 cajoling my colleagues to record things for me then editing them for the band's virtual output - I thought I ought to put myself through the same treatment! This piece has been a favourite of mine since I first heard it at primary school, and I have sung it many times over the years - I thought it might work very well as a piece for two flutes. I hope you like it. (p.s. Sgt Mike McSharry added a new decoration to his piano every time I asked him to recording something for me!)
Yehven Stankovych: Sonata of the Serenades
In March 2022 Jemima Palfreyman and I gave a recital for the Salisbury Chamber Music Club. Our original planned programme was a cheerful collection of favourite pieces to mark our first post-Covid in-person recital. But then Russia invaded Ukraine. We altered our plans to centre Ukraine, with Yevhen Stankovych's Sonata of the Serenades at the heart of our programme. The piece has two movements:
1: Incredible
2: Elegy
It was such a powerful piece to perform. We followed it with the slow movement of the Taktakishvili sonata.
Briccialdi arr. Bouriakov / Hernandez: Variations on the Carnival of Venice
Here are a couple of excerpts from a performance I gave of Briccialdi's Variations on the Carnival of Venice, arr. Bouriakov / Hernandez. Particular thanks to SFC Adrian Hernandez, Chief Arranger for The United States Army Field Band, for kindly sharing his excellent arrangement with me.
Feed The Birds
Jemima Palfreyman and I regularly play sets of music at The Christie Hospital, making use of their lovely piano from Forsyth Music Shop. While here as a patient, I always hoped to come back to the Christie as a musician one day – I am very happy to have been able to achieve this. Here is a short recording from our first visit as musicians to the hospital in October 2025. We played some old favourites of ours, interspersed with a bit of sightreading and light improvisation around film music and Disney tunes. Here is a short recording from near the end of our set of 'Feed The Birds' from Mary Poppins
Feed_The_Birds_The_Christie_2025.mp3
Geraldine Green: Nocturne
Recorded and edited during Covid restrictions for International Women's Day, March 2021.
In March 2021, Jemima and I recorded 'Nocturne' by Bolton-based composer Geraldine Green for International Women's Day, as part of a set of pandemic recordings I edited for the Lancashire Artillery Band. At this time of year Jemima and I often present a programme of music for flute and piano by women composers. This piece is usually the encore.
Sample programmes:
Nineteenth-century British flute music
Flute music by female composers
British and Irish folk-inspired programme, including Cameron Wilson's Celtic Partita and Redgate's Three Folk Songs
French programme featuring Mouquet, Roussel and Gaubert
American music including sonatas by Copland, Liebermann and Muczynski
Music for flute, voice and piano with soprano Helen Wilson
Tango & Rumbango! Mower and Piazzolla
New and recent work by composers from and associated with Manchester and the North West, including Lucy Armstrong, Peter McGarr and Geraldine Green
Concertos:
Briccialdi, Carnival of Venice, arr. flute & band (Shrewsbury)
Borne, Carmen Fantasy, arr. flute & band (Belfast)
Doppler, Andante & Rondo, for two flutes and orchestra (Ripon)
Recitals (selected):
St Martin-in-the-Fields
Salisbury Chamber Music Club
Manchester Cathedral
Ripon Cathedral
Sheffield Cathedral
Buxton Festival Fringe (fringe award winners, multiple appearances)
St Andrew & St George's URC Bolton
Music @ Wesley, Chester
Bury Parish Church
Didsbury Arts Festival
Chorlton Arts Festival
St Peter's, Manchester
Lecture recitals:
Royal Northern College of Music
Music in Nineteenth-Century Britain international conference
Glossop Guild (adult education): The Flute in nineteenth-century Britain
Outreach and engagement:
The Christie Hospital, Manchester
Primary school workshops
Classical Kids Concert, Nantwich
Piccadilly Sinfonia school workshops