Hannah Shimwell

Yorkshire-born clarinettist Hannah Shimwell is a recent graduate of the Royal College of Music where she graduated her Masters of Performance in July 2026. She is grateful that her studies were supported by Help Musicians, the Munster Trust and the Wilkins-Mackerras Award. She studied under Richard Hosford, Timothy Lines, Peter Sparks, Barnaby Robson and Paul Richards.

Hannah works regularly as a guest with orchestras including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, English National Opera, Britten Sinfonia and St Paul's Opera. She is playing her first BBC Prom in July 2026 with Mahler’s Sixth Symphony. She won a place on the BBC Symphony Orchestra Sit-In Scheme 2024/25, as well as being part of the CBSO Orchestral Residency 2026. She is currently on the Chromatica Early Graduates Scheme 2026-2027 and the GloGrow Scheme 2026-2027.

Hannah adores chamber music and is a founding member of the Hyde Clarinet Quartet. They are Tunnell Trust Award holders and Royal Overseas League Competition Finalists, and have also performed at the Chipping Campden Music Festival and Cerne Abbas Music Festival. 

Hannah has also worked with Kensington Winds, and is a founding member of the Ashton Ensemble and the Vlinder Collective. With the Ashton Ensemble, she has performed at The Gardens of Highgrove House, Garsington Opera, Champs Hill and Whitstable Music Society. 

She also recently had the privilege to play alongside the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective performing Dohnányi’s ‘Sextet’ at the RCM Chamber Festival. 

Hannah is also grateful to have had the opportunity to perform the first two movements of Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet with the Marmen Quartet, and perform Druschetzky's 'Concerto for Three Basset Horns' alongside clarinettists Timothy Lines and Colin Lawson. Basset horn has become a love for Hannah and she recently performed both of Mendelssohn’s Konzerstücke for Clarinet and Basset Horn in several performances at the Royal College of Music and at the Cerne Abbas Music Festival alongside Richard Hosford and Emily Crook. Hannah enjoyed performing her debut concert at the Wigmore Hall, alongside Ensemble 360, Jason Isaacs and musicians from the RCM in 2025.