About Catherine Shrubshall
In 1983 I packed up my beloved saxophones and clarinets and left my rural Essex home to study music and performance arts in London. From there I embarked on a wonderful and entertaining professional life as a freelance woodwind player and educator, travelling all around the world for many years. I have lived predominantly in London, with brief sojourns to North Yorkshire and Rome along the way. However, In 2015 I decided to return to my Essex roots to embark on the next chapter of my professional development.
2020 presents amazing opportunities to take inspiration from the countryside and the huge Essex skyscapes as I collect exciting material for new work. I am collaborating with many different artists and students in order to share and develop my experiences... interactive freestyling with music, poetry and prose alongside offering consultation lessons and improvisation coaching.
In addition to all this I am continuing with a peripatetic lifestyle that often takes me back to London where I maintain a regular teaching practice. I am also currently working with projects in Nottinghamshire and Suffolk, and am open to travelling anywhere that can employ and absorb my creative skills.
HIGHLIGHTS OF MY CAREER
Some of the highlights of my varied and diverse career are: playing contrabass saxophone on the “Strange Cargo” tour with William Orbit, leading 400 saxophonists on an improvised musical march through the City of London, backing Lovers Rock icon Barry Biggs, being rowed around the Highgate ladies pond while improvising, developing an exciting new musical as part of a “Glyndebourne Opera” outreach project, touring with Ballet Rambert and Shobanah Jeyasingh Dance, opening the 1st Royal Festival Hall’s “Meltdown Festival” with “Icebreaker” and guesting on BBC2’s “Later….with Jools Holland”.
catherine shrubshall - freelance musician and educationalist
