Zoë began playing clarinet at the age of 10, after a lot of persuading her parents and practicing the recorder REALLY hard. At the age of 13 she decided it would be cool to start playing the sax as well, much to the horror of her clarinet teacher, and was taught sax at school by the brass teacher, odd but true.Zoë was entered into several woodwind competitions when she was young, and eventually auditioned for the county music school when she was 14 on both Clarinet and Sax. She took up a place playing sax in the County Wind Orchestra, and eventually the County Big Band, which she adored! In 1993 she won the Staffordshire Your Big Band award. During this time she was taught sax by local jazz hero Chris Gumbley (still one of her hero's now).
Zoë studied in Bath, where she got her degree in music, specialising in performance. Whilst there she played in the Jazz Band and a function band, as well as having to participate endless choir performances which still haunt her to this day!
Since then Zoë has played in Big Bands, Windbands and a Sax Quartet.After leaving university Zoë was a Festival organiser, organising Folk Arts Festivals for a couple of years, then got a "real" job as a conference manager for an IT company.
Zoë has two daughters, and now splits her time between them and teaching clarinet and saxophone - an infinitely more satisfying career choice.
Zoë's musical tastes are somewhat eclectic, but she loves anything she can have a good dance to!