Tabitha Collingbourne (Recorders)

Tabitha (on the right) studied music at Dartington and Trinity College, and pursued a career in music publishing, complemented by music-making with a group of friends, performing in schools, churches and village halls around South Devon. She also taught recorder at Exeter University and the local primary school. Following a temporary break from the musical scene, she was delighted to return to music-making with the Blackwater Consort.

She is the owner of the spinet in the picture on our home page. Tabetha moved to Doncaster, thus depriving the Consort of the use of a beautiful instrument!

Katharine Ibbotson (Flute and Recorder)

Katherine has lived in Braintree all her life, developing an interest in music throughout her teens, as a member of the Essex Youth Wind and Baroque Orchestras. On leaving school she studied for her degree at Colchester Institute School of Music, her first study being the flute, with the piano the second. It was during this period that her interest in ‘early music’ came to the fore, involving her in performances on the flute and viol in various early music consorts. After graduating, Katherine undertook teacher training at Kingston University, prior to accepting a music teaching post at the Tiffin Girls School, Kingston, eventually returning to this area to teach at Moulsham High School in Chelmsford.

Stephen Woodcraft (Counter Tenor)

Stephen has sung as an alto in the Choir of St. Peter’s Bocking for the last fifteen years. He was previously a boy chorister there, spending his last year as Head Chorister before moving to the men’s section as a counter tenor. In 1970 he sang as a member of the large Royal School of Church Music Choir in the Royal Albert Hall, in the presence of HM The Queen, which was an unforgettable experience.