In the mid-1980s one of my music teachers was the composer and recorder player Ian Shanahan. I once asked him why he loved and played the recorder? His reply still rings true today. “No one ever told me that the

‘Humanity in Every Note’ I catch up with French coloratura soprano Sabine Devieilhe in London, in between her performances of Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment at Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House. After winning a unanimous First Prize at the Paris