AN ACCLAIMED recorder player will explore the fascinating and colourful repertoire of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in a concert at Dorchester Corn Exchange on Sunday, February 23.

Olwen Foulkes will transport audiences back to the 17th and 18th centuries when performances of music, dance and acrobatics would take place during the intervals of spoken plays.

Accompanied by theorbo and cello, Olwen will introduce the music and musicians who featured in these fashionable interval recitals. The programme includes sonatas sonatas by Arcangelo Corelli and Giuseppe Sammartini, plus beautiful suites by lesser known musicians James Paisible, Matthew Locke, and John Grano.

Mark Tattersall, artistic director of Dorchester Arts, said: "We’re delighted to welcome Olwen back after a wonderful concert here in 2016. How many of us started our musical life by learning the recorder? Olwen never stopped playing and is part of a growing band of great musicians showing us how versatile the recorder is as a serious instrument. We’re pleased to inspire our next generation of musicians with the beautiful sounds this impressive instrument can make."

Olwen Foulkes has worked with ensembles including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, London Handel Players, Monteverdi String Band, and La Serenissima. She has performed live on BBC Radio 3 and played for the Royal Shakespeare Company 2018 season, and teaches the recorder at the Junior Department of Trinity College of Music.

She also gives lectures on eighteenth century dance and ornamentation at the Royal Academy of Music and on the Marnaves Baroque Summer Course.

Her debut solo record, Directed by Handel, was released on Barn Cottage Records in 2018 and her second, Indoor Fireworks, was released in November 2019. Olwen is currently working on a PhD at the Royal Academy of Music, London.

Tickets for the performance, which starts at 2.30pm, are £14 or £12 for concessions. To book, visit the Dorchester Arts website, contact the box office or head to the Corn Exchange.