Newcastle Flute Day with Carla Rees
Supported by Alessandra Amorino and Sandy Hay
Sunday 28 February 2026, 10am - 4pm
The Lit & Phil, 23 Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne
Carla Rees (c) NIck Romero
Join us in Newcastle for the next in our series of regional Flute Days, with Guest Artist Carla Rees! A leading flute player, composer and arranger, Carla is Professor of Low Flutes and Contemporary Flute at the Royal Academy of Music, and Director of the rarescale ensemble. She’ll be joined by prize-winning performer Alessandra Amorino and expert teacher Sandy Hay.
Join us for an enjoyable day of music-making, learning, and connection! There will be ensemble and flute choir sessions, technique workshops and a masterclass - expect hints and tips for playing flutes of all sizes - and we’ll cap off the day with a short celebratory concert.
Suitable for players aged 16 and over, of Grade 6 standard and above.
Price: £40 for BFS members, £50 for non-members (booking form below)
About Carla Rees
Carla Rees is a British flute player, composer and arranger, working to raise the profile of her instruments through performance, research and collaboration. She enjoys an international performance career both as a soloist, improviser and chamber musician; she frequently appears at international festivals and was a soloist for the National Flute Association’s Concerto Gala in Phoenix Arizona in 2023. Recent performances include in Brazil, USA and Japan as well as around the UK.
She is an established recording artist with a discography of over 30 titles, including concertos with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia and Neue Musik im Ostseeraum, as well as several world premiere recordings of works composed for her. She has also recorded for film, radio and video games. Her drive to create new repertoire has resulted in the premieres of several hundred works, many of which are now published by Tetractys Publishing.
She is Artistic Director of the contemporary chamber music ensemble rarescale, and its associated ensemble, rarescale Flute Academy. She leads flute days and masterclasses throughout the UK. She is also Artistic Director of the International Superflutes Collective, a flute ensemble which celebrates international friendship and collaboration. Carla was appointed as the first Professor of Low Flutes and Contemporary Flute at the Royal Academy of Music in September 2021 and has taught masterclasses and composer workshops at some of the world’s leading institutions, including the Juilliard School in New York and USC in Los Angeles. She is Editor of the British Flute Society’s magazine, Pan, and Commissions Coordinator for the National Flute Association of America. Carla plays Kingma System flutes, made for her by Eva Kingma, Bickford Brannen and Lev Levit. She has a PhD from the Royal College of Music in London.
About Alessandra Amorino
Alessandra is an Italian flautist based in Newcastle upon Tyne, where she is also the BFS Area Representative. She holds an MMus in Flute from the Conservatory of Cagliari, and completed her postgraduate studies in Rome, where she focussed on flute and piccolo performance. In 2002, she was awarded the Berio Prize for the best performance of Sequenza I at the Severino Gazzelloni Fellowship competition.
While working towards her Chamber Music degree at the Conservatory of Rome, she fell in love with playing classical and contemporary music in ensembles. She co-founded the Pierrot ensemble Piccola Accademia degli Specchi (PAdS), which was for several years the ensemble in residence for the composition class at the Conservatory of Rome, and participated in major contemporary music festivals across Europe, giving several world premieres of dedicated scores. As a member of PAdS, she also recorded three albums (Minimamachta, Centaur Record, USA, 2009; House of Mirrors, Zefir Records, The Netherlands, 2011; and Collision Point, Belarca Records, USA, 2019).
She has also served as principal flute/piccolo and second flute in several symphonic orchestras playing classical repertoire (such as Spoleto’s Teatro Lirico and the Royal Northern Sinfonia), as well as recording film soundtracks with the likes of Ennio Morricone, and accompanying famed artists and bands from a broad range of genres, from rock-prog to operatic pop such as Andrea Bocelli. Since moving to the Northeast, she has fostered interest in the flute through her concert and teaching activity, particularly at the Glasshouse International Music Centre in Gateshead. She plays in two duos (with pianist Kate Halsall, and with harpist Sarah Paterson), and founded the A Tre Voci trio with soprano Rachel Dyson and pianist Yoshie Kawamura.
About Sandy Hay
BFS Council member Sandy grew up in Ayrshire on the West Coast of Scotland and started playing the flute aged 13. His undergraduate degree allowed him to specialise in community music and he studied the flute with Sheena Gordon, before completing postgraduate studies at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire with Kevin Gowland. He has worked as a flute teacher for over 25 years, living and working in Birmingham. Having worked as a music service manager, conductor and teacher, he’s passionate about bringing people together to enjoy making music, especially in flute choirs.
We look forward to seeing you there!
If you need any more information, please contact us at events@bfs.org.uk.
More about the BFS Flute Day Series 2025-26
BFS Flute Days give you the chance to connect with like-minded people, enjoy listening to great flute players, and make music together. Each day will focus on ensemble and flute choir playing, technique and a masterclass, as well as a short concert to celebrate what we have achieved across the day, and will feature a guest artist with strong links to your particular area.
Other events in the series include:
Bristol Flute Day with Ian Mullin on Saturday October 18 2025 (past)
Cambridge Flute Day with Tom Hancox on February 1 2026
Maidenhead Flute Day with Wissam Boustany on 30 May 2026 (full details TBC)