Blondel gives engaging and spirited performances of Medieval and Renaissance wind music. It is easy to imagine how the bold tones of a shawm band cut across the hustle and bustle of dance and banquet halls, or even a city square. More surprising to modern ears is the joyful and sophisticated beauty that results from this uniquely blended sound.

Blondel’s past performances include concerts in the Cheltenham Festival (broadcast live by the BBC) Cambridge Early Music, Brighton Early Music Festival, 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, and Colchester Early Music. The Agincourt600 Committee commissioned us to record a CD based around the life of Henry V which is available as a free download.

Full time members of Blondel are Belinda Paul, Emily Baines and Lizzie Gutteridge:

Belinda studied modern oboe at the VCA (University of Melbourne.). She won a scholarship to study baroque and classical oboe in the Netherlands with Frank de Bruine and Ku Ebbinge. Now based in London, she plays with orchestras such as the Academy of Ancient Music, Gabrieli Consort & Players and La Stagione Frankfurt. She has recorded with the Academy of Ancient Music, Ex Cathedra and The Hanover Band; her operatic engagements include a stint at St Petersburg’s Hermitage Theatre and the Utrecht Festival. Belinda has performed many of the major romantic orchestral works both in the UK and abroad. She studied romantic oboe with Marcel Ponseele, topping her year at Philippe Herreweghe’s Abbaye aux Dames course in France. She has appeared with I Fagiolini and The City Musick, and taken part in in the West End transfer of the Globe’s production of Richard III, and in the National Theatre's production of Everyman.

Emily is a freelance player of historical/folk woodwinds, soprano singer and musical director. She trained in recorder and singing at the University of Hull, the Royal Conservatory The Hague, and most recently at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She has worked as a guest lecturer at GSMD and the University of Hull and is now studying as a scholarship student on GSMD's Doctoral Programme.

Emily performs for many period instrument ensembles and contemporary groups including the Gabrieli Consort, BREMF Renaissance Players, L'Avventura London and The Harp Consort. She is a co-founder of Blondel, The Fellowshippe of Musickers and The Musicians of London Wall.

She was Musical Director of Jessica Swayle’s ‘Nell Gwynn’ at the Apollo Theatre and the Globe, and has performed in/directed productions with Jericho House, Just Enough Theatre Companies, the Globe (Richard III, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Julius Caesar, Tis Pity She’s A Whore, Broadway transfers of Twelfth Night and Richard III).

Lizzie took up playing shawm as a part of the historical re-enactment movement to re-form Waits bands, then decided to pursue it further and make it her main occupation. She plays a wide range of historical instruments, including bagpipes, recorders, curtals and fiddles.

Lizzie now performs up and down the country, in and out of historical costume, as a member of Blondel and The York Waits. Freelance engagements have included the Globe's “Nell Gwynn”, both on tour and in the West End, “The Knight of the Burning Pestle” at the Wanamaker Theatre, performances in Morocco and London with Passamezzo, large scale events at Hampton Court and the Tower of London as well as TV appearances on “Thronecast – Gameshow of Thrones” and “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 on historical instruments with the use of live looping equipment which allows layering of parts to show Medieval and Renaissance melodies from a new perspective.