Jan Waterfield read music at Girton College, Cambridge, where she was also a choral scholar.This was followed by postgraduate studies in harpsichord and piano with John Toll and DavidWillison at the RAM in London, where she won prizes for both lieder accompaniment and continuoplaying. After graduating from the RAM, she was a member of the prestigious European Union BaroqueOrchestra, working alongside Jaap ter Linden and Andrew Manze. Jan has been a member of Paul McCreesh’s Gabrieli Consort since 1993, taking part in theirmany award-winning projects. Since 2009 she has been their principal harpsichordist and was a majorplayer (both as organist and researcher) in their recent disc ‘A New Venetian Coronation’, therecipient of a 2013 gramophone award. She is also a regular player with the Academy of Ancient Music, the Classical Opera Company,His Majesty’s Sagbutts and Cornetts, La Serenissima, the Scottish Ensemble, the Scottish ChamberOrchestra and Ludus Baroque. She was a contributor to John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach Cantata pilgrimageof 2000 the extraordinary series of live recordings made from a year’s journey through Europe,performing the whole cycle of Bach’s church cantatas. Her solo highlights range from recording thecomplete virginals works of Martin Peerson to playing Gorecki’s concerto for amplified harpischordlive from London’s Wigmore Hall on BBC R3. Jan has been active as a teacher at the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh, the GuildhallSchool in London, the Academie Baroque Européene in France as well as both Heriot-Watt andEdinburgh Universities and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Her experience as a vocal coachresults in a steady stream of singers beating a path to her door. She is a regular duo partner ofthe soprano Mhairi Lawson, the bass Brian Bannatyne-Scott and the ‘cellist ChristopherSuckling. She can sometimes be found playing the accordion with the klezmer group ‘KleyneKlezmer’. “highlights include the gentle warmth of Jan Waterfield’s organ playing” (BBC Music magazine,2012) “wonderfully delicate chamber organ solos, played by Jan Waterfield”(Bachtrack 2012)
