Written by Ambre Montespan - Updated on Mar 11, 2026
Table of contents:
Want to learn more about the wonderful world of the ocarina? Wondering which well-known artists and musicians regularly use this wind instrument in their songs and compositions? Who plays the ocarina?
I’ve loved the ocarina for over 10 years, so I wanted to find out which musicians are truly the best in the world at playing this instrument. I’ve done plenty of research, and I can easily share what I found to help you expand your musical knowledge of this fascinating instrument.
Among the renowned artists who play the ocarina are Italy’s Giorgio Pacchioni, YouTuber David Erick Ramos, American musician Cris Gale, and multi-instrumentalist Nancy Rumbel.
After reading this article, you will know more about:
- Giorgio Pacchioni
- David Erick Ramos
- Cris Gale
- Nancy Rumbel
You’ll discover the major artists who use the ocarina to create beautiful melodies while helping popularize this musical instrument worldwide.
Now, let’s take a look at the list of performers who specialize in the ocarina.
Italian musician Giorgio Pacchioni
Giorgio Pacchioni is a composer, performer, and musicologist born on July 16, 1947, in Italy. During his professional career, he served as head of recordings at the Giovanni Battista Martini Conservatory in Bologna from 1977 to 2006, when he retired to Brazil. He has written several books, notably on the recorder, piano, and violin. His love of the flute naturally led him to the ocarina, which has since become one of his passions. He has a YouTube channel where he shares his compositions, which can be played on both flute and ocarina. You can watch him perform a melody on the ocarina in the video below:
You can find the complete list of Giorgio Pacchioni’s pieces at this address to get a better sense of his work as a whole. It’s also worth noting that this renowned musician makes his own ocarinas, tailored to his needs as a composer.
YouTuber David Erick Ramos, ocarina specialist
A classically trained musician, David Erick Ramos has been playing the ocarina since 2006. He discovered the instrument through Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and has since built a large online audience, especially on YouTube, where his videos and tutorials on this woodwind instrument have been viewed more than 85 million times as of this writing.
Originally from San Antonio, Texas, David Erick Ramos has also toured across the United States to perform and promote the instrument through educational workshops. As a featured artist, David has taken part in Nintendo’s "Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses" tour and "Video Games Live," the first and longest-running concert series dedicated to video games. He also performed at the International Ocarina Festivals in Italy in 2015, 2017, and 2019, as well as the Ocarina Festivals in Seattle in 2018 and 2019.
In addition to David Erick Ramos’s original albums (Leave Luck to Heaven in 2013 and Ocarina Road in 2017), he has contributed to several other projects, including tribute albums such as ZREO’s Twilight Symphony (2012), Time’s End: Majora’s Mask Remixed (2012, 2016), and Video Games Live: Level 5 (2016). More recently, David contributed to the soundtrack of the indie game Yoku’s Island Express. Listen to David Erick Ramos’s ocarina cover of the main theme from Game of Thrones below:
Flute player Nancy Rumbel
Nancy Rumbel is an American multi-instrumentalist and composer. She mainly plays the oboe, English horn, and double ocarina. She was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, and studied at Northwestern University before joining the Paul Winter Consort, with whom she recorded and performed for eight years. In 1984, she moved to Seattle, where a chance encounter with guitarist Eric Tingstad led to a Grammy Award-winning collaboration that has lasted for over 25 years. This collaboration took the form of a music group simply named Tingstad and Rumbel.
Through compositions created with this duo, Nancy Rumbel delivered some of her finest performances on the ocarina, including the song "Spring Maiden," which you can hear in the video below:
American artist Cris Gale, an expert on this wind instrument
Cris Gale is first and foremost an ocarina player, but she is also an ocarina designer, teacher, and advocate. Initially trained as a flutist, she switched her main instrument to the ocarina in 1999. It was through her deep appreciation of Koji Kondo’s music in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time that she discovered the instrument.
Over the years, her enthusiasm for the ocarina has turned into a career. In the beginning, she performed locally at events for family and friends and occasionally worked in the studio. After winning an international star-search competition in 2009, Cris Gale began pursuing the ocarina more seriously. Since then, she has performed at some of the world’s most prestigious venues, including headlining at Carnegie Hall in New York City. With a collection of over 300 ocarinas, Cris Gale is currently working to create the first ocarina museum in the United States.
In addition to her work popularizing the ocarina, Cris Gale is also passionate about promoting cultural exchange. The ocarina has a universal appeal that transcends cultural boundaries, and Cris is honored to partner with a variety of organizations to help increase cultural understanding through the ocarina. From partnerships with the Japan-American Society of DFW and the Celebrating Asian American Heritage Foundation to performances and educational panels at anime and video game conventions, she continues to popularize the ocarina and introduce it to new audiences.
When she’s not performing or traveling, Cris teaches, records, and produces music from her home studio in North Texas. She has organized four annual ocarina festivals in the United States, which have featured more than 20 artists from Japan, including renowned soloist Kazumi Sato. However, since 2016, updates about Cris Gale have been few and far between.
Play the ocarina like a pro
While the ocarina community is still relatively small, it’s steadily growing thanks to young talents like Cris Gale and David Erick Ramos. We couldn’t possibly list every brilliant ocarina artist here, such as Luis Rigou and Jean-Philippe Audin, who produced the album simply titled Ocarina, with music composed by the famous Paul de Senneville. But you now have a solid overview of what the global scene offers in terms of skilled ocarina players.
All these artists share one thing in common: they rely on high-quality ocarinas to produce beautiful melodies. Since this instrument is still fairly rare in brick-and-mortar stores, it can be tough to find an ocarina with truly good acoustics. To solve that, the online store Instruments du Monde carefully selects and sells top-quality ocarinas to satisfy even the most demanding musicians.
Treat yourself to a professional-quality ocarina with this 12-hole model—simply click on the image below:
To keep your ocarina sounding its best, clean it regularly to remove the moisture and dirt that build up inside the chamber over time. Learn how to clean your instrument based on the material it’s made of, so you don’t end up damaging it.
