Recorder31 Day 31 | A Look Back at Recorder31 2025

We're very nearly at the end of Recorder31 for another year, and what a month it's been! We have one more very special treat coming this afternoon, but to celebrate the end of the month, here's a look back at some of the highlights and two very exciting announcements along the way!

Newsflash! Recorder Festival 2026

After the success of the festival we hosted earlier this year, we're delighted to announce at the end of Recorder31 that The Early Music Shop will be hosting another recorder event in Saltaire in 2026. More details, including the format of the event and guest artists, will be announced in due course, but for now, please save the dates: 29-31 May 2026. Watch this space for more!

Hearing Is Believing – Reconditioned Instruments Added

Another exciting addition to our recorder offering is the recent expansion of our 'Hearing is Believing' audio demos, to include a number of instruments from our Reconditioned range. Find out more about these one-off items by hearing them before you purchase! There's a large collection of audio samples now available, with more on their way...

Side-By-Side Interviews

This year's Side-By-Side Interviews covered a broad spectrum of fascinating topics, including the experience of studying and teaching recorder, being a touring musician working with orchestras and ensembles, working with the recorder in a range of genres, and much more. We're grateful to the interviewees for sharing such interesting stories: Lucie Horsch, Max Volbers, Stefan Temmingh, Mathis Wolfer, Pierre Hamon, Juho Myllylä, Tali Rubinstein & Liza Bec.

You can listen to all four Side-By-Side Interviews on Soundcloud by clicking here.

60-Second Lessons

We enjoyed hearing tips and tricks from a range of highly acclaimed players in our 60-Second Lesson series. You can catch up on the whole series by clicking here, and please let us know your highlights in the comments!

Again, a huge thank you to the contributors: Annabel Knight, Juho Myllylä, Nura Natour, Stefan Temmingh, Olivia Petryszak, Erik Bosgraaf, Kate Allsop, Jorge Isaac and Piers Adams.

Exclusive Recorder31 Interviews & Features

As always, Recorder31 brought together a special collection of exclusive features and interviews about the recorder world and more. Tabea Debus introduced her new album 'folio', which was also this month's Featured Album, while Naomi Okuda shared her experience of the recorder scene in Japan, in particular with Takeyama recorders, in her interview.

Highlighting inspirational women in music, Heidi Fardell talked about her group's programme 'More than a Woman' in her special video, while Ensemble Interchange took us on a trip to their concert in Cologne performing early music by female composers in our Instagram Takeover (catch up on our Instagram highlights).

The youngest players on the scene were in the spotlight in our exclusive video premiere with the National Youth Recorder Orchestra, while young musicians from the Royal Academy of Music Junior Department talked about their experience and inspirations. 

We also hosted Featured Maker interviews with two of our valued recorder suppliers, Moeck and Aafab (makers of Aura and Coolsma instruments) and later today, Team Recorder's Sarah Jeffery will introduce us to some of the fabulous wooden sopraninos in The Early Music Shop's range.

London International Festival of Early Music

Looking ahead to this year's London International Festival of Early Music, the artistic director Erik Bosgraaf and festival featured artist Dorothee Oberlinger introduced us to some of the recorder elements of this year's event. We also introduced you to the three finalists of this year's SRP / Moeck Solo Recorder Competition: Lucas Biegel, Olivia Petryszak and Eun Sol Lee.

Tickets for this year's festival are on sale now – click here to find out more!

Big Round-Up Sale – Final Hours

We're into the final hours of our Recorder31 Big Round-Up Sale, with great prices on over 200 recorders from our extensive catalogue – explore the full collection by clicking here and make the most of the special prices until midnight (PT) tonight. 

Competitions – Results Coming Soon!

We're really grateful to everyone who's taken the time to enter one of our Recorder31 competitions. The judging for all four competitions will be taking place very soon and we will contact all winners by the middle of September. We'll also share some of the winning performances on our website and social media, so keep your eyes peeled – there's a lot of great talent on display!

We'd like to acknowledge and thank everyone who contributed a prize for one of this year's competitions or giveaways: Mollenhauer, Aafab, Moeck, LIFEM, Anna Stegmann (Ensemble Odyssee) and Tabea Debus.

Thank You

We'd like to say a huge thank you to all the contributors who have made this such a special month, and to everyone who has engaged with Recorder31 on our website and social media. We'll be back in 2026, and please keep in touch by letting us know in the comments what, and who, you would like to see featured in next year's programme. It's been a busy month, and from the Recorder31 team (Finn, Eli & Olivia) – thank you

We have one more special treat to share later, so watch out for the final Recorder31 feature this afternoon!

See you in 2026!