ALTO SAXOPHONE 1
DIANE BEAL
About Diane...
Diane studied clarinet at the Birmingham Conservatoire with Edward Watson and Saxophone with Chris Gumbley. Although classically trained, a love of Big Bands and theatre music has sent Diane’s talents in many different directions. She has a wide range of performances to her credit, including concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, the inaugural concert at Birmingham Symphony Hall and soloing in front of more than 50,000 people at Birmingham’s Fireworks Fantasia.
Diane has also played for many award winning Big Bands including the Midland Youth Jazz orchestra, the Bobby Johnson Big Band and Svengali where she shared the stage with Guy Barker, Bobby Shew, Kenny Baker, Roy Castle and Barbara Thompson – to name but a few. European tours took her to France, Germany and Holland on numerous occasions with several different bands, appearing at many of the major jazz festivals in these countries.
As a multi instrumentalist she became a much sought after player in the amateur dramatics scene in the midlands and has shows such as Jesus Christ Superstar, West Side Story, Guys and Dolls, Gigi and Me and My Girl on her CV.
Whilst still at the Conservatoire she was chosen to work for the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford upon Avon where she joined the resident musicians under the directorship of Guy Woolfenden. At the end of her first spell at the theatre she was surprised to learn that she would be following the play down to London as its director – Michael Attenborough – had insisted that only her sound on saxophone would do!
From an early age Diane has forged a successful career as a woodwind teacher. At 17, while most of her friends had Saturday jobs that earned them less than £2 an hour, Diane had taken over her parents front room and was teaching Clarinet and Saxophone, gaining valuable experience for later life.
Again, while she was studying at the Conservatoire, she began work as a Peripatetic Woodwind Teacher for Coventry City Council before becoming a freelance teacher at Blue Coat C of E School. This is where she set up her first Concert Band which grew in 4 years from having 14 players to having a senior band of over 60 and a training band of 30.
She also masterminded a highly successful concert tour of the Alsace region of France with the two bands, the school orchestra and the schools award winning choir. After a break of almost 10 years from full time teaching while she worked in music retail, Diane has very recently returned to the profession and now has her own music school – Larch Music Tuition Ltd.
