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: Nina Whiteman, Ian Vine, Richard Whalley, Mic Spencer, Edward Caine, Lauren Redhead, Chris Swithinbank, Camden Reeves, Eric Lyon and Manuella Blackburn, and some of the UK’s most talented postgraduate composers.
Formed in 2007 for a performance of Lachenmann’s temA,concert engagements since include Kings Place, York Late Music Festival, Leeds University Contemporary Music Festival, The University of Manchester lunchtime concert series, Liverpool Hope 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.
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 singer living in Manchester. She studied music at Oxford University and holds MusM and PhD qualifications in composition from the University of Manchester. As a singer, Nina specialises in challenging repertoire composed in the last fifty years and has performed at a number of major festivals (Manchester International Festival, Sonorities Festival) with ensembles such as Trio Atem and Kairos, and as a soloist.
Nina was selected for the 2009 Sound and Music Composer Shortlist for her work The invention of clouds. In 2010-11, commissioned works have included: A book of walks (for the Colinton Amateur Orchestral Society as part of the Adopt-a-composer scheme [PRSF, Sound and Music, Making Music, broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in October 2010]), Celestial Navigation for accordion duo Toeac (premiered at the Cheltenham Music Festival in July), Windows on the Neva for Manchester Camerata (performed in Ulverston Coronation Hall, and RNCM, October 2010, conducted by Gábor Takács-Nagy) and Waggle Dances for Quatuor Danel. Current projects include a collaboration with Benjamin Powell, winner of the 2010 British Contemporary Piano Competition.
Alice Purton is currently studying for a Masters of Performance at the RCM with Melissa Phelps. 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.
Alice is an RCM scholar supported by the John Lewis Partnership Fund.
Formed in 2007 for a performance of Lachenmann’s temA,concert engagements since include Kings Place, York Late Music Festival, Leeds University Contemporary Music Festival, The University of Manchester lunchtime concert series, Liverpool Hope 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.
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 singer living in Manchester. She studied music at Oxford University and holds MusM and PhD qualifications in composition from the University of Manchester. As a singer, Nina specialises in challenging repertoire composed in the last fifty years and has performed at a number of major festivals (Manchester International Festival, Sonorities Festival) with ensembles such as Trio Atem and Kairos, and as a soloist.
Nina was selected for the 2009 Sound and Music Composer Shortlist for her work The invention of clouds. In 2010-11, commissioned works have included: A book of walks (for the Colinton Amateur Orchestral Society as part of the Adopt-a-composer scheme [PRSF, Sound and Music, Making Music, broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in October 2010]), Celestial Navigation for accordion duo Toeac (premiered at the Cheltenham Music Festival in July), Windows on the Neva for Manchester Camerata (performed in Ulverston Coronation Hall, and RNCM, October 2010, conducted by Gábor Takács-Nagy) and Waggle Dances for Quatuor Danel. Current projects include a collaboration with Benjamin Powell, winner of the 2010 British Contemporary Piano Competition.
Alice Purton is currently studying for a Masters of Performance at the RCM with Melissa Phelps. 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.
Alice is an RCM scholar supported by the John Lewis Partnership Fund.