Gareth McLearnon

Gareth McLearnon began his flute playing career in his native Belfast, making his way through the ranks of the 39th Old Boys Flute Band, before moving to London in 1999 to attend the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Whilst still a student there Gareth recorded with the legendary flute-player, Sir James Galway and Harpist Marisa Robles for the charity CD Songs for Alexander.



Gareth is an active composer and arranger of music, and Theodore Presser Publishers have published a collection of his Irish Flute and Piano arrangements entitled "Round Ireland with a Flute", released in August 2008 at the Kansas City NFA Convention - this all happened following Sir James Galway playing one of Gareth's arrangements on Live at the Lincoln Center to a US TV Audience of around 8 million people in December 2004. Gareth launched his debut album "Sounds of Home" at the Kansas City convention, which has all of the tunes from his book, plus seven extra tracks including Hamilton Harty's In Ireland and Philippe Barnes' All knowing Salmon



Gareth also enjoys playing the music of his homeland in various guises - most recently with the fantastic group Licence to Ceilidh where he plays on his wooden 1924 Rudall-Carte flute with a matching headjoint made for him by Robert Bigio and his handmade Blackwood Whistle made by his good friend William Simmons.



Gareth is a recipient of the 2003 Ian Fleming Charitable Trust Music Education Award, a Countess of Munster Musical Trust Award and was awarded full scholarships to attend Sir James Galways Masterclasses in Italy (2003) and Switzerland (2004) Gareth has given recitals all over the UK and Europe for the Ireland Funds, Invest Northern Ireland, and the Concordia Foundation, and was a Making Music Recommended Artist for 2006. Gareth is also a professional writer on flute related topics, and his work has recently been featured in Pan Magazine in an article he wrote about Philippe Barnes. He has had his article entitled: "On buying the Flute" featured in the recent Wind & Brass issue of Classical Music Magazine he has had several articles published in issues of Flutewise Magazine, and has recently written a comprehensive online flute-buyer's guide for one of the largest music retailers in Europe. Gareth works regularly with the Children's Flute-playing charity Flutewise and has travelled all over the UK and parts of Europe teaching on their residential courses, and conducting their flute choir.



Gareth gained a place in Southbank Sinfonia - "Britains Professional Orchestral Academy" for its 2005 season which involved being part of almost 90 concerts including fully staged opera, World Premieres, solo performances and a solo concerto.



His professional Orchestral experience also includes playing in concerts and BBC TV & Radio recordings with the Ulster Orchestra, The London Pops Orchestra, Australian National Opera, he has played in several West-End Shows including Lloyd-Webber's Beautiful Game, and the Lord of the Rings Musical at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and has toured with Nigel Kennedy. He is a founder member of EMFEB, an exciting young orchestra resident at St. Johns-at-Hackney.



Gareth is a Pearl Flutes International Artist and is also employed by Pearl Music Europe as their Flute Specialist - he plays on one of Pearl's finest custom made 14K Gold Maesta instruments with a 14K Headjoint by Dana Sheridan.