The WRS Spring Recital was held on Saturday, May 16. See the program, recording videos, and some pics here
Washington Recorder Society
The Washington Recorder Society (WRS), a chapter of the national American Recorder Society, is the premier place for people in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area who want to play the recorder together. For more than 50 years, WRS has been providing recorder players of all abilities with colleagues, teachers, workshops and great music from the Renaissance and Baroque eras to the present. New members and visitors are always welcome.
WRS members meet in person from September to May on the third Saturday of the month at St. Columba’s Church, 4201 Albemarle St NW, Washington, DC 20016. Leo Angulo (see bio) will join as a guest music leader for the November and December sessions of 2025. Music leaders David McGown or Leo Angulo, and Adela Balima direct a 2-hour playing session. Bring your instruments and a music stand; music is provided. On the first Monday of selected months, members get free online instruction from well-known teachers across North America. Register online and receive the music and Zoom link. Other membership benefits include newsletters, recitals and access to the members-only part of the website.
Latest News
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Recital, May 2026
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May Newsletter is out!
Get the latest news from WRS : upcoming board members election, participation of WRS in ‘play the recorder month’ with members playing in a school, and interview with Betty Landesman, list of local teachers, list of future summer workshops, a workshop for music and crafts. Click here.
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Mon, June 1st, 7:30pm. On-line session with Gwyn Roberts
Please register here for an on-line session with Gwyn Roberts. The annual business meeting/meet and greet will start at 7pm, and the music session at 7:30.
Here is a description of Gwyn’s class:
Handel, the great recyclerHandel repurposed, upcycled and rearranged music throughout his life — he seemingly never met a great tune he couldn’t make into something else. Mostly, he quoted himself, but there was that matter of the suitcase of music that he stole when leaving his first job at the Hamburg Opera. We’ll play movements from two of his concertos for double orchestra that quote his oratorios, a vocal duet in Italian that he wrote right before he wrote Messiah with all sorts of strangely familiar things in it, and a movement from the Water Music that he swiped from his former boss Keiser — PLUS Keiser’s original.
For the registered participants, the music will be sent ahead of the class and the zoom link the day before.
Gwyn Roberts, flutist, recorder player and Artistic Director and founder of Tempesta di Mare, has been a featured soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Portland Baroque Orchestra, Recitar Cantando of Tokyo, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. She is the director of Early Music at the University of Pennsylvania, and is on the faculty of Peabody Conservatory. A link to her bio is here