Catherine Millar

Catherine is a bassoonist. She studied Music at Oxford as a Leask Scholar and bassoon under Bob Codd, principal of BBC NOW, as well as with Stefan de Haan and Cecil James. She is Head of Bassoon with the MTB Exam Board and runs the junior part of the Big Double Reed Day at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama each year. She is also a keen arranger, with many of her works published. In 2020 she was awarded the Francesca Hanley Inspiration Award (formerly Music Teacher of the Year) for her contribution to teaching.

Catherine has a keen interest in the development of the bassoon and particularly mini bassoons. She has been invited to talk on the subject of developing young bassoonists, and all endangered species instruments, at a number of conferences, including at the International Double Reed Society Conference in Birmingham, the International Society for Music Education Conference in Beijing and the UNOF Conference in Norway. Catherine now visits Norway twice each year to continue her work on developing mini bassoon teaching in that country. In addition to these trips, Catherine is regularly visited by educators from abroad, including from Australia, Japan, Norway and Argentina.

Catherine has been working with BYSO since its inception and runs the biannual tours. She also teaches a large number of pupils involved in national ensembles, including NCO and NYO.