Lizzie Parkes

d county level. In addition to these instruments, Lizzie has taught herself the flute, and offers lessons on all these instruments. She graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2021 with an MA in Ethnomusicology, specialising in Japanese-style music, and is studying for a PhD in Film and Television from September 2025, researching background music in anime. As a performer, she has extensive knowledge of classical music and jazz, and has experience playing in folk ensembles. Lizzie describes herself as a “musical native” – someone who has lived and lives music. She obtained Grade 8 Saxophone at fifteen and DipABRSM Performance Oboe at eighteen, learning saxophone and clarinet with Pete Effamy and oboe with Lucinda Willits in Portsmouth and Christine Swain in Sheffield. Lizzie has a hobby of collecting musical instruments and indulges in teaching herself those that she has collected, including the flute, guitar and whistle. By her early twenties, Lizzie had played at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the Music for Youth Proms (2009), completed tours with her ensembles in South Africa (PanJazz Project / South Africa Jazz Project, 2008 & 2010), Provence (Hampshire County Youth Orchestra, 2010) and Amsterdam (Sheffield University Wind Orchestra, 2016), and performed with jazz greats Abram Wilson and Soweto Kinch with the Southampton University Progression Ensemble and Southampton Youth Jazz Orchestra. Lizzie specialises in ensemble work and has played and sung with over twenty ensembles since 2002, including trad jazz bands, saxophone quartets, choirs, and symphony orchestras. As a multi-instrumentalist she has particularly enjoyed working with pit bands as a reed musician for musicals including The Wizard of Oz (Mercia School, 2025), The Producers (Fareham College, 2012), and Thoroughly Modern Millie (RicNic Winchester, 2012). During lockdown, Lizzie performed remotely with Japanese superstar Yoko Kanno’s The Seatbelts (https://tinyurl.com/4yzfv77t, 2020) and the Bland Big Band (2020), and began to arrange music from anime and videogames for sharing on social media. She now performs with the Phoenix Concert Band and online under the alias Digi-rocker. Combined with her years of performance experience, Lizzie transitioned into teaching by training as a Primary School Teacher at the University of Nottingham in 2021-2022, followed by working in primary schools for two years teaching whole-class music amongst other subjects. Lizzie has worked with Sheffield Music Hub since 2023 as their oboe specialist, with Derby and Derbyshire Music Partnership as an Accredited Music Teacher since 2024, and has also worked with Inspire Music in Nottinghamshire. Lizzie teaches 1-2-1 with these organisations alongside her private work, and also assists in the delivery of Sheffield Children's Wind Band. Lizzie has Registered Private Music Teacher status with the Independent Society of Musicians, complete with DBS check and public liability insurance.