TABEA DEBUS, recorder

Winner, 2019 Concert Artists Guild Competition

“Tabea Debus is one of the most exciting young musicians in the early music world…”

Classic FM

Described by The Times as a ‘charismatic virtuoso’ Tabea is much sought after as a soloist, collaborator, teacher and communicator. 

Over the last year she has returned to Wigmore Hall and recorded live concerts commissioned for release online by the Vancouver Recital Society, San Francisco Early Music, the Shriver Hall Washington D.C. Discover Series, London International Festival of Early Music and the Banquo de la Republica in Colombia.  In 2020 her recording for Delphian: Ohrwurm was released to critical acclaim.

Passionate about outreach work, Tabea has developed several projects including a music/art-game Soundshapes, a play-along library Continuo Lines, and Endo the Earthworm (a series of videos inspired by Gareth Moorcroft’s ‘Diaries of the Early Worm’) which uses puppets.  She works with musicians, actors and artists and has contributed to Saffron Hall’s Together in Sound, Jackdaws Music Education Trust and Music Masters, among many others.

This season, Tabea gives recitals across the USA including the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., Morgan Library (NY), UChicago series, Merkin Concert Hall (NY) and Houston Early Music. Other highlights include concerts at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany where she won the prestigious Soloists Prize in 2019.  

Always eager to discover, develop and perform new music, Tabea collaborates with numerous composers.  She has performed widely internationally, highlights including the Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival, Musica Antiqua Bolzano, Edinburgh International Festival, the Funkhaus Cologne, Early Music Festivals in London, York and Brecon, the LSO Soundhub and Barbican Centre’s Sound Unbound.  

As a chamber musician she has collaborated with Iestyn Davies, Rachel Podger, Elizabeth Kenny, Richard Egarr, Jonathan Rees and Lawrence Cummings, among many others.  She regularly appears with La Serenissima and The English Concert and is a frequent guest on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune and Early Music Show.

Born in Würzburg, Germany, Tabea studied at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts and the Royal Academy of Music in London.  She was a prize-winner at the Young Classical Artists Trust International Auditions (London) in 2018 and the Concert Artists Guild (New York) International Auditions in 2019 where she also received the Richard S. Weinert Award for Innovation.   

She teaches recorder at Wells Cathedral School and leads composition and chamber music workshops at the Royal Academy of Music and Cambridge University. 

Tabea is generously supported by Lord and Lady Burns.

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