Professional bassoonist joins our workshop
September 25th, 2026
We are very pleased to welcome Vicky Crowell to our team this month.
Vicky joins us as a bassoon repairer, bringing with her something rather unusual: many years' experience of the bassoon from the other side of the workbench, as a professional orchestral player.
She studied bassoon and contrabassoon performance at the Royal College of Music in London before continuing her studies at the Musik-Akademie Basel in Switzerland with Sergio Azzolini.
Her subsequent professional career included serving as Associate Principal Bassoon with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, as well as performing with leading orchestras in the UK and overseas.
From player to repairer
Vicky's interest in repair developed alongside her playing.
“I had always envied repairers,” Vicky admits. “I was fascinated by how the mechanism worked and desperate to learn the secrets of repair so I could understand and work on my own instruments.”
Over the years, she regularly helped adjust and troubleshoot instruments for her students to keep them playing reliably. Eventually, that deep curiosity grew into a clear change of direction.
Vicky explains:
“Having spent so many years on the player side of the player - repairer relationship, I know how much confidence you place in your instrument.
“When you are performing, you don't want to be thinking about the mechanism or wondering whether something is going to respond as it should. You need the bassoon to perform seamlessly so you can concentrate purely on making music.
“That is one of the main things which attracted me to repair. I understand what the player experiences, the need to set up their instrument to suit their playing style and role in the orchestra.”
Another player's perspective in the workshop
Vicky strengthens our repair team, but we are equally excited about what her playing experience brings more widely.
There is a difference between knowing that an instrument is mechanically correct and understanding how it behaves in the hands of a player.
Having another experienced professional bassoonist in the workshop gives us an additional pair of highly trained ears—and hands—with which to assess instruments, test ideas and evaluate the effect of changes under real playing conditions.
Oliver Ludlow says:
“We are delighted Vicky has joined us. Her professional playing experience gives her an understanding of the bassoon which goes well beyond whether something is mechanically functioning correctly.
“She knows what an instrument has to do when a player is actually relying on it: how it needs to respond, feel and behave, and the confidence it needs to give.
“That will obviously be invaluable in repair and regulation, but also in some of the development work we are increasingly doing. Being able to make a change and then have it assessed immediately from the perspective of an experienced professional player is enormously useful.
“Vicky joins us at a particularly exciting time, and I think her combination of playing and practical skills will make an important contribution to where the business goes next.”
We look forward to introducing Vicky to many of our customers over the coming months—and to seeing where this next combination of playing and workshop experience takes us.
