Music In The Museum: November 2026
Classical music performance taking place in the stunning Drawing Room, surrounded by the museum's unique art collection and with spectacular views overlooking Wardown Park.
Bassoons Without Borders
Lois Au and Michael Elderkin - Bassoon Duo
A wide-ranging journey exploring the spectacular repertoire of a glorious instrument. This joyful duo performance breaks down traditional barriers to celebrate everything the bassoon can do. The concert features two of the UK's premier bassoonists, Lois Au and Michael Elderkin.
Biography
Lois Au
Lois graduated from The Royal College of Music with a First Class Honours degree in 2012, where she studied with Martin Gatt, Julie Price and Andrea di Flammineis. She was the winner of both the concerto competition and the bassoon prize and enjoyed studying at The Performing Arts Academy, Prague as part of the ERASMUS Programme.
After graduating, Lois held the bassoon chair for The National Theatre’s The Light Princess and has since played as a multi-instrumentalist (clarinet/flute/saxophone) in other west end productions such as Wind in The Willows, Phantom of The Opera, Caroline or Change and Charlie and The Chocolate factory. She has held the position of Musical Director at Shakespeare’s Globe for several productions and is now enjoying a freelance career, playing with orchestras such as: Aurora Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, English National Opera, LSO, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, London Mozart Players, and World Orchestra for Peace.
Lois is also a frequent session musician and records many film and commercial soundtracks for Netflix, Amazon and Disney. She also works with The Heritage Orchestra for crossover collaborations with artists such as Pete Tong, Dua Lipa, Jeff Goldblum, Rosalia and Raye.
Michael Elderkin
Bassoonist and contrabassoonist Michael Elderkin is an accomplished player, performing internationally as an orchestral, chamber, and session musician. Performing frequently with the London Symphony Orchestra, theOrchestra of the Royal Opera House, the London Contemporary Orchestra and others, Michael is an active freelancer in London, where he resides.
Michael is a frequent session player in London, recording with the major session fixers, and also works out of his home studio to record remotely -- having recorded for Amazon, Apple TV+, Disney, Audio Network, and various other projects - both on bassoon and contrabassoon. He has been featured as a soloist on the video game soundtrack to "Age of Fear 3: The Legend" and can be heard on numerous film/television scores.
Michael attended the Eastman School of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying with John Hunt, Daniel Jemison and Dominic Morgan.
In addition to performing in the orchestra, Michael is an accomplished orchestrator and composer. He has orchestrated for films including 'Black Widow' (2021), 'Gemini Man' (2019), 'His Dark Materials' (2019), and 'Mission: Impossible - Fallout' (2018). He has written music for numerous films including Nightrounds and Pacalu
