Jill Crowther

Cor Anglais

Principal Cor Anglais

Jill was born in Rotheram in South Yorkshire, and after winning open scholarships to the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama she decided to study at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester where her teachers were Bernard O’Keefe and Sonia Wrangham.

Portrait of Jill Crowther

After a period of highly successful freelance playing in the North of England, Jill was appointed as Principal Cor Anglais with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, and subsequently became a member of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Jill has been with the Philharmonia since 2001, the same year in which her daughter Georgia was born. She is also Professor of Cor Anglais at the Royal Academy of Music.

Jill has made many recordings and travelled the globe, working with some of the world’s most eminent soloists and conductors. Jill lives in Derbyshire with her husband Chris and daughter Georgia. She owns a pony called Tarmac, which both she and her daughter ride, and has four hens – Slinky, Buff, Elizabeth and Stripe. She loves getting out into the Derbyshire countryside on her road bike.

Jill loves English music, but hates Copland. She also loves Downton Abbey, but hates making reeds!

The Principal Cor Anglais Chair is endowed Mervyn and Barbara King.

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Watch a film featuring Jill Crowther: