My friend and fellow bassoonist Valerie Watts has died of cancer aged 67. Valerie started to learn the bassoon at Wimbledon high school, south-west London, swiftly progressed to the Royal College of Music in 1961 and was soon a deputy in the Sadler's Wells Opera Orchestra.
When a position became vacant, she was offered a full-time job and stayed with the orchestra for five years. She then became a freelance bassoon and contra player and was often to be seen cycling round Marble Arch, in central London, with her instrument on a trailer. She was routinely booked to play for opera and ballet companies visiting London from abroad.
Val had a dogged strength of character and a keen sense of what was good and what was pretentious. She was well-known for her trenchant opinions of the personalities of the music world, and her conversation was always peppered with humour, sometimes with a slightly edgy twist, carrying echoes of a difficult childhood.
In the 1980s, freelance work became scarce and living in London was hard, so she moved to North Yorkshire, where she had been regularly involved with the Helmsley festival (later the Ryedale festival), and so had friends in the area. She continued to play professionally all over the country. In 1990, by pure chance, she experimented with brass instruments and was quickly recruited into the Swinton & District Excelsior Brass Band, progressing rapidly to principal trombone.
Her love of good literature was almost as great as her dedication to music, and her tiny cottage held thousands of books. Wide reading made her a demon crossword solver and an impeccable proofreader.
Valerie loved the English countryside and covered most of it either on foot or bicycle. In 1978 she took part in the Cyclist Touring Club's centenary relay ride around Britain and was one of the few to complete the entire course within the year.
In 2002 she contracted breast cancer, which was held at bay but eventually returned with relentless progression. She is survived by her sister, Carole.
