Martha-Lilly Dyer
Martha-Lilly Dyer is one of the UK's most promising young flautists and musicians. Having studied as a specialist musician at Wells Cathedral School for 5 years, receiving pre-professional training, she gained a distinction at grade 8 at just 13 years old and was awarded her ABRSM diploma at age 16. She has played and won competitions for the Royal Marines volunteer band service and helped arrange and perform a charity concert with Alan Titchmarsh, MBE. Martha-Lilly is currently training as a flautist and musician at conservatoire level.
Martha-Lilly Dyer
Biography
Martha-Lilly Dyer is a flautist, currently studying at undergraduate level in some of the UK’s top conservatoires. Born, and brought up in Cornwall in a family of artists, Martha-Lilly was exposed to creativity from a very young age.
Although a passion for art didn’t emerge at first, at the age of 8, shortly before the family moved to the south of France, Martha-Lilly discovered the flute. A complete beginner she started on her musical journey at the Conservatoire de Musique, Menton, under the tuition of Guillaume Daniel for three years. In this highly musical environment she was able to engage in a wide range of activities: from flute lessons to jazz lessons, piano lessons to solfège, she even participated in a local fife group, where in the traditional Mentonais costume she was taught local folk music by ear.
Martha-Lilly's three years in France not only brought her fluent french, but a love, and natural ability for music which she proceeded to bring back to the UK. Participating in a range of local and regional ensembles including the Cornwall Youth Wind Orchestra and the South West Regional National Children’s Orchestra, once back in England, led Martha-Lilly and her family to discover Wells Cathedral School, a specialist music school in Somerset. In 2012, aged 13, Martha-Lilly was awarded a government scholarship to attend Wells, where she boarded until the end of her school life in 2017.
Whilst at Wells, under the watchful eye of her flute tutors, initially Lisa Nelsen and later Elizabeth Walker, she played in a number of high calibre of solo concerts; including a number of lunchtime concerts, masterclasses and a showcase for the Two Moors Festival, and ensemble concerts; playing principle flute for WCS symphony orchestra, Wind Ensemble and flute trio concerts both at the Garrick Club, London, and privately hosted by Alan Titchmarsh, in aid of the Nordoff Robbins music therapy trust.
Leaving Wells in 2017, Martha-Lilly took a break from education, working as a teaching assistant in Wells Cathedral Junior School but this didn’t stop her flute progression. The year saw her playing in a number of Royal Marines Band concerts, masterclasses in Milan with Sir James and Lady Galway, and winning a Top Wind funded scholarship for Flutes in Tuscany. Consequently in the summer of 2018 Martha-Lilly was awarded a place and scholarship at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama where she has been studying under Matthew Featherstone and Jonathan Burgess since then. Her time there has seen her play principle for RWCMD wind orchestra, taking lead roles in chamber music, and representing the college in a number of small performance platforms and masterclasses.
In 2021 Martha-Lilly and Nick Lauener (classical pianist) began a collaboration and formed the musical venture Danu Duo which they are very excited to pursue. They are exploring a range of repertoire and wanted to make performance an accessible and enjoyable experience for all.
Most recently Martha-Lilly has been given a place to transfer her studies to the esteemed Royal College of Music in London, where she looks forward to starting in September 2022.