Described as a “virtuoso, scholar, [and] presenter … of rare charm and lucidity” by the press, recorder and baroque oboe player Brendan O’Donnell is dedicated to bringing early music to life for a 21^st-century public. Through solo outings and performances with period ensembles both in Adelaide and interstate, he has earned a reputation as an inspiring and engaging interpreter, inviting audiences to experience and enjoy music they might otherwise never encounter.

Brendan has performed as both soloist and chamber musician with Adelaide Cantata Band, Adelaide Baroque, Adelaide Chamber Singers, and the Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra, and has been a soloist in the acclaimed Woodend Winter Arts Festival with Accademia Arcadia. Before returning to Australia in 2021, he performed in Germany with Cembaless, Ensemble Raccanto – most prominently in the Leipzig Bach Festival – and joined the Gärtnerplatz Orchestra in Munich for their innovative production of Purcell’s King Arthur. As a soloist, he was chosen to present his solo program Seeking Australia as a part of the European Recorder Players’ Society conference in Bolzano, Italy in 2019, and more recently presented his innovative program Bird/Song at the 2023 Adelaide Fringe Festival alongside acclaimed soprano, Kate Macfarlane.

He is an experienced teacher: for 8 years, Brendan taught at music schools in Bavaria including the DOrff-Werkstatt in Andechs and the Musikschule Hallbergmoos-Neufahrn, alongside substantial private teaching and ensemble coaching. In 2019 he tutored together with recorder virtuoso Susanne Ehrhardt during the recorder course Musiktage am Chiemsee in Germany, and since 2022 has been a regular tutor at the Orpheus recorder courses in Armidale, NSW. He also gives workshops for the Society of Recorder Players SA and provides coaching for advanced students and ensembles in Adelaide.

Brendan has played recorder since the age of four. Growing up with early musicians as parents, he had many opportunities to perform in professional circles during his teenage years, but initially studied political science rather than music after completing high school. His passion for early music was reignited a few years later – though he had never stopped playing and performing – and he went on to study at a tertiary level: first in New Zealand with David Coomber and Kamala Bain, later in Salzburg with Dorothee Oberlinger and Matthias Lunenburg, where he completed a master’s degree in 2013.