Angela Barnes

Horn, Board Member

Member since 2005; Professor at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama

‘Both my parents play the horn (as amateurs – they met playing in the BBC Staff Orchestra in the early 1970s), so it was more a case of choosing which of them was going to start teaching me! I chose my mum, mainly because she favoured the use of the B-flat side of the horn (which generally makes for far quicker progression on the instrument!)’

Having started horn lessons with her mother aged eight, Angela Barnes went on to study at Chetham’s School of Music and the Guildhall School, where she has recently been invited to return as Professor of Horn. During her final year of study she was offered the second horn position with the LSO, and upon joining became the first female member of the brass section.

A keen chamber musician, Angela features in the second instalment of the Cala Records London Horn Sound series and appears alongside tenor Allan Clayton in Britten’s Canticle Three, recorded for BBC Radio 3 as part of the New Generation Artists scheme. Solo appearances include Strauss’ Second Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra as part of the BBC YMOTY 2002 Final, and as part of the solo quartet in Schumann’s Konzertstuck with the LSO. She is very much a cat person, currently besotted by her cross-eyed ginger tom, Eddie.