Recorder31 Day 30 | Side-By-Side Interview: Hester Groenleer & Sören Sieg

How have we already reached the penultimate day of Recorder31? Time certainly does fly when you're having fun! Today, we present the final Side-By-Side Interview of this year's series, with another pairing of European recorder champions coming together to reflect on their careers.

This week's interview touches on another massive topic – the theme of composing new music for recorder. Sören Sieg, renowned composer whose recorder works are enjoyed by amateur and professional players worldwide, joins up with celebrated performer, educator and ensemble director Hester Groenleer, for a conversation which touches on their personal connections to the recorder, their past collaborations with each other, and their new album projects which have both seen recent releases.

About the artists

Hester Groenleer studied recorder at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Paul Leenhouts. She obtained both her Bachelor and Master degrees cum laude. She has been appointed principal subject teacher at the same institute since January 2025. Her ensembles The Royal Wind Music, Seldom Sene and her duo with organist Matthias Havinga perform many concerts at festivals and venues at home and abroad, including The Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Boston Early Music Festival (USA) and the Berliner Tage für alte Musik , Forum Cultural Guanajuato (Mexico) and Concert Hall Taipei (Taiwan). Hester won several prizes at competitions, including first prize at the Concours International d'Ensembles de Flûte à bec in Le Mans (FR) with Seldom Sene. Together with colleagues, she organizes the Open Recorder Days Amsterdam, the largest recorder biennial worldwide. www.hestergroenleer.com

Sören Sieg learned to play the recorder, violin and piano as a child and later the saxophone, trumpet, guitar and drums. He studied Sociology, Politics and Music in Hamburg and Bielefeld. He toured with his a cappella group LaLeLu for 18 years throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Since 2012 he has lived as a composer and author in Hamburg. He has published ten books and numerous works for classical ensembles that are played all around the world. Sören Sieg's large and growing collection of recorder compositions is highly popular with both amateur and professional performers and works have been recorded by players including Seldom Sene, Chris Orton, Flanders Recorder Duo & Juho Myllylä. www.soerensieg.de

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REMINDER! Our Big Recorder31 Finale continues until the end of the month, with great prices on over 200 instruments representing a true cross-section of our recorder range. If you've been inspired by this year's Recorder31, now's the time to explore the collection. Click here to discover all the instruments and start your journey towards a new recorder!

ANOTHER REMINDER! Our final Recorder31 competition closes TONIGHT – send us your recording of Jacob Van Eyck's 'O Slaep, O Zoete Slaep' for a chance to win a Moeck Rottenburgh Soprano Recorder in Amaranth in our contest with guest judge Erik Bosgraaf. Click here to find out more about how to enter.

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Today we are featuring a magnificent pre-loved instrument from our collection: an Alto Recorder after Jan Steenbergen (a=440Hz) in European Boxwood, hand-crafted by master maker Ralf Netsch and fully reconditioned.

Jan Steenbergen was one of the premier Dutch woodwind makers of the Baroque era, famous for instruments that paired narrow windways with exceptionally refined, vocal tone qualities. Crafted in European boxwood, Netsch’s version captures that classic Dutch elegance—delivering a sweet, singing solo voice with remarkable pitch stability.

Listen for the smooth, silvery quality in the upper register and the subtle "reediness" inherent to European boxwood. The reconditioned windway provides an immediate, delicate speech, allowing intricate ornamentation and rapid articulation to flow with effortless grace and complete clarity.