Continuo Connect — Profile // Emily Baines

Dr. Emily Baines is a professional recorder player, lecturer and musical director working throughout Europe also specialising in a wide variety of historical woodwinds. She trained at; the University of Hull, the Koninklijk Conservatorium (The Hague) and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she wrote her doctoral thesis on the role of mechanical musical instruments as sources for eighteenth-century performance practice. 


Emily performs regularly for many period instrument ensembles, contemporary groups, music festivals and theatres across Europe. She is a member and co-founder of Blondel (medieval and renaissance wind band), selected in 2016 as one of BBC Radio 3’s ‘Introducing’ acts and who have recently released their acclaimed third album ‘Of Arms and a Woman’ with First Hand Records. Her playing is regularly featured on radio, TV and in film.


Theatre work has included musician and musical director roles for Jericho House, English Touring Theatre, Barbican BITE, the RSC, National Theatre and Shakespeare’s Globe, including the Globe’s premier Broadway transfers of Twelfth Night and Richard III in 2013 starring Mark Rylance and Stephen Fry. Recently appearances include touring the UK as Musical Director/Band Leader on Jessica Swayle’s Olivier Award winning Nell Gwynn directed by Christopher Luscombe with music by Nigel Hess, following a successful run in London’s West End (2016); Musical Director/Band Leader on Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s acclaimed and rabble-rousing new play Emilia for Shakespeare’s Globe (2018); and principal performer for the RSC’s production of The Merry Wives of Windsor (Barbican, 2018-19).

In addition to her performing schedule, Emily is a Senior Lecturer in Music at Brunel University London, and is regularly invited to other H.E. institutions (including Goldsmiths, Birmingham Univeristy, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and Shakespeare’s Globe Higher Education Department) for guest lectures and practical workshops. Her first album as a soloist (with the ensemble Amyas) 'The Ghost in the Machine', showcasing her DMus research was released to great acclaim in October 2021 with First Hand Records.