Trio Atem is one of the UK’s most exciting and dynamic young contemporary music ensembles. With only a small number of existing works in the repertoire (Helmut Lachenmann’s temA chief among them), their principal commitment has been to commission new work from the younger generation of UK composers. Those commissioned include: Ian Vine, Richard Whalley, Mic Spencer, Edward Caine, Lauren Redhead, Chris Swithinbank, Nina Whiteman, Camden Reeves, Eric Lyon, Manuella Blackburn, Martin Iddon, Eleri Pound, Scott Wilson, and Larry Goves.
Formed in 2007, concert engagements since include Kings Place, York Late Music Festival, Bridgewater Hall (BBC Philharmonic Ink Still Wet series), Leeds University Contemporary Music Festival, The University of Manchester lunchtime concert series, Liverpool Hope University, Kingston University, and residencies at the RMA Student Conference, and Novars Electroacoustic Studios (The University of Manchester).
Atem are also actively involved in work beyond the concert hall and traditional repertoire formats, exploring new avenues for the ensemble. The most recent of these is a series of ‘hypergraphic scores’ by artist Michael Mayhew: The Alchemy Collection. This work involved spatialised, mobile performances at the Whitworth Art Gallery (Manchester) using scores whose content goes beyond musical notation to include social, cultural, ecological and scientific concerns.
Trio Atem’s current series – Northern Arcs – is funded by an Arts Council England Grant for the Arts; this project has enabled us to commission five new works for the ensemble, each of which receives between two and four performances in this series, and enters our repertoire thereafter. Past funding has come from the RVW Trust, and the PRS for Music Foundation.
Gavin Osborn is a flautist, composer, sound-artist and teacher based in the North-West. As a performer, his focus is contemporary repertoire, both acoustic and electroacoustic, notated and improvised. A performer in many of the UK’s premiere festivals, notable ensembles he has led or co-directed include Kairos, Beacons of Sound, and Trio Atem.
Nina Whiteman is a composer and a singer based in Manchester. Recent commissions from Manchester Camerata, Quatuor Danel, and Dutch accordion duo TOEAC (among others) as well as high-profile performances at Kettle’s Yard, Bridgewater Hall (BBC Philharmonic Ink Still Wet), Cheltenham Music Festival, and Kings Place in the last 2 years demonstrate Nina’s growing reputation as an engaging British compositional talent. Since gaining a PhD in composition from The University of Manchester in 2009, her work has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, commissioned by the Adopt-a-Composer scheme (PRS for Music Foundation/Sound and Music/Making Music), and selected for the 2009 Sound and Music Composer Shortlist (The invention of clouds - bass flute solo, percussion, string trio).
www.ninawhiteman.com
www.soundcloud.com/ninawhiteman
Alice Purton graduated from the RCM with a Masters of Performance in 2012, where she studied with Melissa Phelps with support from the John Lewis Partnership Fund. A graduate of the prestigious Manchester Joint Course, previous teachers include Karine Georgian, Raphael Wallfisch and Leonid Gorokhov. She has also studied contemporary performance with Anssi Karttunen at the 2010 Acanthes International Summer School in 2010.
Recent solo performances include Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations and Gulda’s Concerto for Cello and Winds, a performance of Kodaly’s Sonata for Cello and Piano as part of the Philharmonia’s ‘Infernal Dance: Bartok’ season and as the electric cello soloist in a performance of Romitelli’s Professor Bad Trip: Lesson II with Vaganza.
Formed in 2007, concert engagements since include Kings Place, York Late Music Festival, Bridgewater Hall (BBC Philharmonic Ink Still Wet series), Leeds University Contemporary Music Festival, The University of Manchester lunchtime concert series, Liverpool Hope University, Kingston University, and residencies at the RMA Student Conference, and Novars Electroacoustic Studios (The University of Manchester).
Atem are also actively involved in work beyond the concert hall and traditional repertoire formats, exploring new avenues for the ensemble. The most recent of these is a series of ‘hypergraphic scores’ by artist Michael Mayhew: The Alchemy Collection. This work involved spatialised, mobile performances at the Whitworth Art Gallery (Manchester) using scores whose content goes beyond musical notation to include social, cultural, ecological and scientific concerns.
Trio Atem’s current series – Northern Arcs – is funded by an Arts Council England Grant for the Arts; this project has enabled us to commission five new works for the ensemble, each of which receives between two and four performances in this series, and enters our repertoire thereafter. Past funding has come from the RVW Trust, and the PRS for Music Foundation.
Gavin Osborn is a flautist, composer, sound-artist and teacher based in the North-West. As a performer, his focus is contemporary repertoire, both acoustic and electroacoustic, notated and improvised. A performer in many of the UK’s premiere festivals, notable ensembles he has led or co-directed include Kairos, Beacons of Sound, and Trio Atem.
Nina Whiteman is a composer and a singer based in Manchester. Recent commissions from Manchester Camerata, Quatuor Danel, and Dutch accordion duo TOEAC (among others) as well as high-profile performances at Kettle’s Yard, Bridgewater Hall (BBC Philharmonic Ink Still Wet), Cheltenham Music Festival, and Kings Place in the last 2 years demonstrate Nina’s growing reputation as an engaging British compositional talent. Since gaining a PhD in composition from The University of Manchester in 2009, her work has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, commissioned by the Adopt-a-Composer scheme (PRS for Music Foundation/Sound and Music/Making Music), and selected for the 2009 Sound and Music Composer Shortlist (The invention of clouds - bass flute solo, percussion, string trio).
www.ninawhiteman.com
www.soundcloud.com/ninawhiteman
Alice Purton graduated from the RCM with a Masters of Performance in 2012, where she studied with Melissa Phelps with support from the John Lewis Partnership Fund. A graduate of the prestigious Manchester Joint Course, previous teachers include Karine Georgian, Raphael Wallfisch and Leonid Gorokhov. She has also studied contemporary performance with Anssi Karttunen at the 2010 Acanthes International Summer School in 2010.
Recent solo performances include Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations and Gulda’s Concerto for Cello and Winds, a performance of Kodaly’s Sonata for Cello and Piano as part of the Philharmonia’s ‘Infernal Dance: Bartok’ season and as the electric cello soloist in a performance of Romitelli’s Professor Bad Trip: Lesson II with Vaganza.