Clarinet

Oliver, who was born and brought up in Manchester, took up the clarinet at the age of 15 in 2006. For ten years before that he had studied the violin but had decided it wasn’t the instrument for him. His grandfather, John Fuest, had played clarinet with the CBSO and convinced Oliver to give the instrument a go. The rest is history!

After two years of lessons with his grandfather, Oliver went to Chethams School of Music to study with Rosa Campos-Fernandez. He followed this with four years at the Royal Academy of Music with Mark van de Wiel. Since graduation Oliver freelanced with most major British Orchestras before joining the CBSO as Principal Clarinet in December 2014, describing the years since that as ‘the time of my life’. He singles out the Beethoven Cycle in Bonn and Birmingham with Andris Nelsons as a memory he’ll never forget, as well as performing Copland’s Clarinet Concerto with the CBSO on BBC Radio 3. 

Away from the clarinet, Oliver enjoys watching sports in general, playing tennis and cricket and balancing all that physical activity with a love of ‘cooking and eating lots of nice food!’