Simon Orr, General Manager, Hedingham Castle
We perform ceremonial fanfares and intimate chansons, dances and theatre music on shawms, bagpipes, recorders, curtals and a variety of percussion—all reconstructions of historical instruments.
We would be delighted to discuss programmes for concerts, educational events, workshops, weddings and other celebrations. We can provide arrangements of famous works as well as a wealth of original material to suit every occasion.
Belinda Paul Emily Baines Lizzie Gutteridge Daniel Serafini Louise Anna Duggan
Arngeir Hauksson
Blondel is a Medieval and Renaissance wind band. Our past performances include concerts in the Cheltenham Festival (broadcast live by the BBC), Cambridge Early Music, Brighton Early Music Festival, Trollhättan Early Music Festival, WindWorks Festival Iceland, King’s Lynn Festival, Medieval Music in the Dales, Beaminster Festival, Leeds International Medieval Congress, the Wimbledon International Music Festival, Totnes Early Music Society, Barnes Music Festival, Worcester Early Music Festival, Banbury Early Music Festival, Salisbury Musick, and Colchester Early Music. We have worked, both individually and as a group, for the Globe Theatre.
We were commissioned by the Agincourt600 Committee to create a work to commemorate the 600th anniversary of the battle of Agincourt—Owre Kynge Went Forth – Henry V and the Battle of Agincourt – told in words and music. The project included a gala performance, and a recording, which is available as a free download from Bandcamp.
Our current project, Cover Story, has been partly funded by the Continuo Foundation. A further grant from Angel Early Music has enabled us to record this programme. The album will be released by First Hand Records.
Dr. Emily Baines is a professional recorder player, lecturer and musical director working throughout Europe also specialising in a variety of early woodwinds. She trained at the University of Hull, the Royal Conservatory (The Hague) and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Emily performs regularly for many period-instrument ensembles, contemporary groups, music festivals and theatres. Theatre work has included musician/musical director roles for English Touring Theatre, Barbican BITE, the RSC, National Theatre and Shakespeare’s Globe, including the Globe’s Broadway transfers of Twelfth Night and Richard III. Her playing is regularly featured on Radio, TV and Film. In addition to performing, Emily is a Senior Lecturer in Music at Brunel University London, and is regularly invited to other institutions for lectures and practical workshops. Her first album as a soloist (with ensemble Amyas) ‘The Ghost in the Machine’, was released in October 2021 with First Hand Records, and a new album ‘Cover Story’ with Blondel is due for release.
Arngeir Hauksson was born in Iceland but came to London for his postgraduate studies on the guitar and the lute at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Arngeir now specializes in historical plucked instruments from the medieval, renaissance and baroque periods performing on copies of original instruments. He also plays classical, folk and electric guitars, as well as percussion and the hurdy-gurdy.
Arngeir performs and records with many major English ensembles and opera companies. These have included The Sixteen, Ex Cathedra, City Musick, Blondel, Glyndebourne, English National Opera, English Touring Opera, Opera North, the BBC Concert Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales. He has for 10 years been a principal player and musical director for Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, also performing in the National Theatre, London’s West End and on Broadway, New York.
He has a keen interest in new music and has collaborated with artists such as Damon Albarn, Sally Beamish, Tony Allen, Bruce Dickinson and William Lyons and he regularly performs in The Historic Royal Palaces, Hampton Court Palace and Tower of London.
Alongside his teaching, Daniel regularly performs with ensembles including the Freiburger Barockorchester, B’Rock Orchestra, Ensemble Pygmalion, Gabrieli Consort, United Instruments of Lucilin, Blondel and Ensemble Seraphim. His career reflects a rare versatility, moving naturally between historical performance and contemporary expression, always with a focus on colour, sensitivity and exploration. Through both performance and pedagogy, Daniel brings a refined ear and a distinctive musical voice to every project. 
Lizzie Gutteridge plays a wide range of historical instruments, including bagpipes, recorders, curtals and fiddles. She is a member of Blondel, The York Waits and the New Cambridge Waits, and musical director of the Colchester Waits. Freelance engagements have included the Globe’s “Nell Gwynn” & “The Knight of the Burning Pestle”, with Passamezzo in Morocco and London. TV appearances include “Thronecast – Gameshow of Thrones” to “A Merry Tudor Christmas with Lucy Worsley”, and live & recorded performances on bagpipe of Gregory Rose’s “Dance Macabre”. Lizzie’s solo project “Consort of 1” combines early music with the use of live looping, allowing layering of parts to throw a new light on Medieval and Renaissance melodies. Her latest project “A musical Illiad” combines ancient and improvised music on aulos and lyres with live storytelling by Clare Goodall.
Daniel Serafini is a Luxembourg-based trombonist, sackbut player and educator whose work connects early music, contemporary repertoire and teaching. A professor at the Conservatoire du Nord in Luxembourg, Daniel is recognised for his thoughtful and highly individual approach to sound. At the centre of his musical practice is the belief that differences in timbre are the foundation of music. This artistic vision is closely linked to deep listening, body awareness and yoga, which all inform his relationship to breath, resonance and presence in performance.
As a medieval and renaissance specialist, she has worked with I Fagiolini, The Gabrieli Consort and Players, and taken part in a number of productions at the Globe Theatre and the National Theatre. She is a founding member of Blondel, with whom she has appeared in the Cheltenham Festival, King’s Lynn Festival, Cambridge Early Music, Wimbledon International Festival and on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune and Introducing. As percussionist productions include: Running Wild (Regents Park) Everyman, From Morning to Midnight, She Stoops to Conquer, Emperor and Galilean, Grief (National Theatre); The Tempest, As You Like It (RSC). As composer, credits include: Henry IV (RSC Education); An Incident at the Border (Trafalgar Studios/Finborough Theatre). Specially improvised film scores include: Macbeth (BAFTA Nominated), Theeb (Oscar Nominated). Folk and Medieval bands include: Joglaresa, The Askew Sisters, Blondel, The City Musick, The Artisans. Louise is a writer and founding member of Mountainear, a percussion led band. She studied at the Guildhall where she received the Lady Mayoress prize for overall excellence
Belinda studied oboe at the VCA (University of Melbourne). She won a scholarship to study baroque, classical and romantic oboe in the Netherlands and France with Frank de Bruine, Ku Ebbinge and Marcel Ponseele. She has performed and recorded with The Academy of Ancient Music, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Concerto Köln, La Stagione Frankfurt, and The Australian Chamber Orchestra. Her theatre work includes performances in St Petersburg’s Hermitage Theatre, and the Utrecht Festival.
Louise Anna Duggan is a London based Percussionist, playing Frame Drums, Hammer Dulcimer, Tuned and Orchestral Percussion for the Theatre, the Stage, and the Studio.