Rebecca Whitener

Rebecca Whitener is a professional clarinettist, teacher, chamber music coach, mentor, music educator and conductor based in Scotland. She regularly performs with world class ensembles including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Scottish Digital Arts, as well as playing further afield with Ulster Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, London Concertante, Stuttgart Festival Ensemble and Theatro Regio Turin. Rebecca has recorded with these ensembles for BBC Radio 3 Live, Chandos, Decca, Hänssler Classics, Linn Records, and Naxos and Sony Pictures.

As a chamber musician, Rebecca is a founding member of the Arctic Winds Wind Quintet, Sound Collective Scotland and Cameo Clarinet Quartet, and has also performed with Dunedin Consort, Children’s Classic Concerts, Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, Scottish Wind Ensemble, and the Verbier Festival Orchestra Chamber Ensemble.

Rebecca is an experienced teacher and mentor, having taught Clarinet and Chamber Music at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Junior department since 2009. A number of her students have gone on to study at the RCS, Royal Academy of Music, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Oxford University, and St. Andrews University. Rebecca directs the award winning RCS Juniors Wind Quintet and also coaches for the National Youth Wind Ensemble of Scotland, West of Scotland Schools’ Symphony Orchestra and Concert Band, Merchant’s Sinfonia, and Strathclyde University Concert Band. She has also guest tutored for the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, Scottish Schools Orchestra Trust, and the Faroese National Concert Band Festival. Rebecca conducts the South Lanarkshire Orchestral Society Intermediate Band and East Dunbartonshire Schools Wind Band. She is Managing Director of the Scottish International Tuba Festival and is a recipient of an RCS Athenaeum Award 2025 for her work addressing tuba underrepresentation.

Rebecca also teaches for the East Dunbartonshire Instrumental Music Service and has guest conducted NYWES Junior Ensemble, the RCS Juniors Concert Band, Strathclyde University Concert Band, West of Scotland Schools Concert Band, Helensburgh Orchestra Society, the High School of Glasgow’s Symphony Orchestra and Wind Band, and for The Palace Band in London.

Some of Rebecca’s career highlights have included touring Europe and America with the Verbier Festival Orchestra alongside Martha Argerich and Charles Dutoit, playing on the soundtrack to the movie “Equaliser 3”, recording for Emmanuel, being awarded First Place at the Tunbridge Wells International Young Concert Artist Competition Wind Section, performing Mozart’s clarinet concerto with The Heisenburg Ensemble, Course Directing the West of Scotland Schools Concert Band, and touring in Europe with the RSNO playing Mahler 1 whilst being 8 months pregnant.