A founder member of the British Paraorchestra and former Paralympian, James Risdon is playing at Dartington Great Hall next month.

The talented musician has progressed to the highest professional level with his playing of the flute and recorder, despite being blind.

James is “a Devon boy” and a great advocate for his home county. He’s one of the lead performers with Devon Baroque of Concerto Heaven at Dartington Great Hall, on September 24.

He was born and grew up in Devon and has a lifelong fascination with the recorder. James performed at the closing of the 2012 Paralympic Games with the British Paraorchestra and Coldplay, and also plays with RNS Moves, an ensemble of musicians from the Royal Northern Sinfonia and musicians with disabilities.

A spokesperson said: “His repertoire and work span the Middle Ages, with several dedications, commissions and compositions to his name. His album Echoes of Arcadia is typical of his eclectic tastes, plotting the recorder’s history from the pleasure garden to the mountain valley, ethereal to electronic.”

James featured in the Paraorchestra’s debut album ‘The Unfolding’, which briefly topped the classical charts in April 2022. Other highlights have included appearances at the Wales Millennium Centre, London’s Barbican and Birmingham’s Town Hall and Symphony Halls in projects with Brett Anderson of Suede, Extraordinary Bodies and the CBSO.

The spokesperson added: “James has a passion for creating recital programmes to introduce the recorder to new audiences. He has performed at King’s Place and St Martin-in-the-Fields and The Handel House Museum in London, as well as countless festivals, churches and other venues across the UK and beyond. In 2015 he made his debut appearance at the Wigmore Hall with theorbo player Matthew Wadsworth in a concert celebrating the Elizabeth Eagle-Bott memorial fund which supported James’s studies.

“He has appeared as soloist with the Czech virtuosi, London Musici alongside Piers Adams and is delighted to be returning to perform with Devon Baroque in his home county. More unusual engagements have included the Bath and West showground for a staging of Britten’s Noyes Fludde, a pod on the London Eye and a performance for the Japanese government in Soporo.

Away from the recorder,”

James spent nearly a decade as the music officer at RNIB where he supported blind musicians through education, employment and leisure. He is an active voice on diversity and inclusion. He represented Great Britain in the 1996 Paralympic Games in the team sport of goalball, and is a seven times national champion.