Lynda Houghton is Principal Double Bass with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and has been playing with the orchestra for more than 25 years on many recordings and world tours.
Having studied at the Royal Academy of Music and at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Canada, Houghton rapidly went on to establish a reputation as a talented exponent of contemporary music, much in demand with London Sinfonietta. She was also invited to play with the London Symphony Orchestra – the first woman bassist with the orchestra.
Houghton also enjoys playing with a number of other chamber orchestras and ensembles, such as the City of London Sinfonia and Orchestra of St John’s, where she is Principal Bass in both, and as a guest in many other ensembles, including The Nash Ensemble and The Fibonacci Sequence. She has played at the Sangat Chamber Music Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Orpheus & Bacchus Music Festival and Edinburgh International Festival. An enthusiastic period instrumentalist, she has toured and recorded with Trevor Pinnock’s The English Concert and John Eliot Gardiner’s English Baroque Soloists.
Houghton is an Associate at the Academy and, while being in demand as a teacher and examiner, her playing engagements encompass not only the world of contemporary, symphonic and chamber music but also films and popular music.