Clarinet

NEXT Musician 2019-20

Heather has recently come to the end of a Junior Fellowship at Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she graduated with a Distinction in the Orchestral Artistry Masters, having completed her undergraduate music degree at Newcastle University and graduated with First Class Honours. Throughout her studies she was generously supported by Guildhall School of Music and Drama, The Zetland Foundation, The Leverhulme Trust, The Altrusa Careers Trust, The Sir Richard Stapley Educational Trust, The Women’s Career Foundation, and The Yorkshire Ladies’ Council of Education. In 2017 she won the D’Addario Single Reed Prize at the North London Music Festival and has enjoyed playing side by side with the LSO in Trafalgar Square and the Barbican, working with musicians from the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Guildhall Symphony Orchestra and performing Richard Rodney Bennett’s Sonatina for solo clarinet in a BBC Radio 3 Total Immersion Concert.

Heather particularly enjoys playing contemporary music, improvising and collaborating with composers. Since attending the Ensemble Modern Summer Academy 2018 and Impuls Festival 2019 in Graz she has started to perform abroad in Germany and Austria as well as in the UK. Heather is involved in various cross-arts collaborations and has recently started working with two artists on an immersive site-specific project. She is also co-producing a music-dance collaboration project with composer, Clare Elton and choreographer, Kasia Witek. As well as her freelance work as a clarinettist and bass clarinettist Heather plays and performs with a variety of chamber groups and the London Soundpainting Orchestra.