Genevieve Lacey
Genevieve Lacey with a contrabass recorder. Photo © Sarah Walker

The Recorder

Featured in a recent, semi-animated documentary called Recorder Queen, Genevieve Lacey loves her instrument’s humility, and says that the recorder has transformed her.

I come from a family of listeners. My mother’s a social worker and my father was an oral historian, so listening runs deep. Neither parent had access to instruments growing up, nor role models for making music, but they both loved to listen, so there was always music at home.

I’m the third of four children and was born in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. When we moved to Port Moresby, one of my brothers wanted to play an instrument and we...