♪♫Flutius Maximus♪♫

ELEANOR PARKES (1st Flute) Eleanor Parkes, the granddaughter of a composer, has grown up surrounded by music. She started on piano at the age of seven, and then took up the flute when she turned eight. From nine, until she left her home island, Guernsey, in 2007, she was a loyal member of the Guernsey Music Centre where she progressed through all the wind bands and orchestras. Every summer since the age of 9, she has participated in a summer orchestral course programme playing flute and piccolo in the top Symphony Orchestra and in the Symphonic Wind Band. She enjoys versatility in her music-making, as a saxophonist in a Big Band, drummer, and pianist as well as aspiring to be a flautist. She attended the Oxford Flute Summer School in 2005 benefiting from the instruction of Peter Lloyd, Michael Cox, Katherine Kemler, and Moshe Epstein. She has also been accepted to return and take the advanced course summer of 2008. She has also been a member of the Guernsey Youth Orchestra and was a finalist in the National Festival of Music for Youth and was a member of the Channel Island Youth Orchestra. She is currently in two major orchestras at Southampton University and three ensembles: a flute trio,”Flutius Maximus”, “The Cantata Company”, and “The New Music Ensemble”. She loves to share musical ideas in these ensembles and build her communication skills, musicianship and playing with great versatility. She also enjoys a wide variety of repertory in her solo performing. She particularly enjoys works from the last century. She is currently near the end of her second year at Southampton and is enjoying taking the double performance unit and ensemble unit which she hopes to continue with the next academic year. ROSALIND HAMLIN (2nd Flute) Rosalind Hamlin began playing the flute at the age of seven after deciding the flute was the instrument for her. She quickly progressed through her grades and has performed regularly throughout her musical career as both a soloist and ensemble performer. At the age of 11 she joined Hillingdon Music Service Music School and attended a variety of their orchestras and choirs. By the age of 13 she was principle flute in Bishopshalt School Orchestra. She soon became interested in a varied of musical idioms including jazz and world music and conducted a Steel Pan orchestra over a period of two years before leaving to attend Southampton University. Rosalind is currently in her second year studying Music with a specialisation in performance on the flute and is enjoying the challenges that this entails. She is a member of Southampton University Wind Orchestra, Concert Band, Subb Zero Big Band and Jazzmanix Jazz and Gospel Choir. It was through her studies that she met the other members of Flutius Maximus and as a result this talented and dynamic flute ensemble was born. JESSICA BENNETT (3rd Flute) Jessica Bennett chose the flute at the age of nine because her granddad who was a musician in the Queens regiment wanted her to play an instrument. She continued to play throughout primary and secondary school completing the Associated Board exams before moving abroad to Switzerland where she played in a local Swiss concert band and performed regularly at her international school. Jessica is currently in her 2nd year of studying for a joint degree in Music and German and is a member of the Southampton University Wind Orchestra, Concert Band and “Flutius Maximus” since last year. She met Eleanor Parkes at a summer flute school in Oxford in 2005 before attending the University of Southampton and met the final member Rosalind in her first year. She has always enjoyed playing mainly Baroque music and Classical, but since beginning university in 2006, has played a larger variety of twentieth-century music.(blog) (hidec)